Summer Cruising in the South Seas

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SUMMER CRUISING IN
THE SOUTH SEAS

K

BY THE SAME AUTHOR
Post Sto, cloth, gilt top, 68. net.

THE ISLAND OF
TRANQUIL DELIGHTS

" After a lapse of many years the author of * Summer
Cruising in the South Seas ' presents the public with another
series of South-Sea idyls. Of the first collection Emerson
said — ' I do not think that one who can write so well vrill
find it easy to leave oC The prophecy has come true.
' Summer Cruising in the South Seas ' has become a classic
in American literature, and the sequel bids fair to attain rank
alongside of it. One might fitly describe it, in Mr. Kipling's
words, as ' a very tropic of colour and fragrance.' There is
a haunting quality about these idyls that must make them
live in the hearts of sdl who read them. They are full of
charming word-pictures and of exquisite touches which tell
of dream life in foiryland— among the lightest, sweetest,
wildest, freshest things that have been written about the life
of these ' summer isles of Eden.* " — Glasgow herald,

** A pretty book with a pretty title. Glimpses of Paradise
he gives in these tropic pictures, and with something of
idyllic grace he presents them.*' — Westminster Gazette,
** Delightful sketches and stories," "Times,
" Written in a leisurely style, and possessing a certain
elusive atmospheric style of their own. . . . There is charm
here, and that of a kind not often to be found in modem
fiction. .\ . ' The Island of Tranquil Delights * should be
Ttakd."'-'Standard,

" Altogether charming. ... It is a book for quiet half-
hours. "--Z^afVy Afail,

' 'A delightful book — more thaii fascinating. After having
read the book for the stories, one reads it again for the style. '
— Travellers* Magazine,

"A eoUection of idealistic sketches. . . . The author
conveys the languorous beauty of the region very vividly,
and the book is attractive for the contrast that it ofifers to
the familiar ways of civilisation.*' — Morning Post,

Lokdon: CHATTO 4 WINDVS, xii St, Martin's Lane, W.q.

SOUTH-SEA IDYLS

SUMMER CRUISING IN
THE SOUTH SEAS-

CHARLES WARREN STODDARD

A NEW IMPRESSION

CHATTO & WINDUS
■9»S

r *

J '* •

• '^ ■

* « •

t

PEEFACB.

HE experiences recorded in this yolnme are
the result of four summer cruises among
the islands of the Pacific.
The simple and natural life of the islander beguiles
me ; I am at home with him ; all the rites of sayage-
dom find a responsiye echo in mj heart ; it is as though
I recollected something long forgotten ; it is like a
dream dimly remembered, and at last realized ; it
must be that the untamed spirit of some aboriginal
ancestor quickens mj blood.

I haye sought to reproduce the atmosphere of a
people who are wonderfully imaginatiye and emotional ;
they nourish the first symptoms of an affiniiy, and reyel
in the freshness of an affection as brief and blissful as a
honeymoon.

258433

^ PREFACE,

With them " love is enough," and it is not necessarily
one with the sexual passion : their life is sensuous and
picturesque, and is incapable of a true interpretation
unless viewed from their own standpoint.

To them our civilization is a cross, the blessed pro-
mises of which are scarcely sufficient to compensate for
the pain of bearing it, and they are inclined to look
upon our backslidings with a spirit of profound for-
bearance.

Among them no laws are valid save Nature's own,

but they abide faithfully by these.

His lordship's threadbare New Zealander sitting upon
a crumbling arch of London Bridge, recently restored,
and finding too late that he had forestalled his mission,
would know my feelings as I offer this plea for his
tribe ; and any one who instinctively lags in the march
of progress, and marks the decay of nature ; any one to
whom the highly educated grasshopper is a burden,
must see that my case is critical.

Yet in imagination I may, at the shortest notice,
return to the seagirt arena of my adventures, and
restore my unregenerated soul.

Limited flagons cannot stay me, neither will small
apples comfort me ; I have eaten of the tree of Ufe, my
spirit is full-fledged, and when I take wing I feel the

PREFACE, ?a

earih sinking beneaiih me ; ihe monntains cnimble, the
clouds crouch under me, iihe waters rise and flow out to
the horizon ; across mj breast the sunbeams brush,
leaving half their gold behind them ; seas upofi seas
fill up the hollow of the universe ; I soar into etemify,
blue wastes below me, blue wastes above me. The stars
only to mark the upper strata of space.

Day after day I wing my tireless flight, and the past
is forgotten in the radiance of the dawning ftiture.

Land £^t l^st I A green islet sails within the compass
of my vision : land at last ! Crumbs of earth, frag-
ments of paradise, litter the broj^d sea like strewn leaves.
A myriad reefs and shoals wreathe the blue hemi-
sphere ; the moan of surfs rises like a grand anthem,
the fragrance of tropic bowers ascends like incense ; I
pause in my giddy flight, and sink into the bosom of
the dusk.

Sunset transfigures the earili; the woods are rosy
with glowing bars of light ; long shadows float upon
the waves like weeds ; gardens of sea grass rock for
ever between daylight and darkness, tinted with change-
ful lights.

I know the songs of those distant lands ; there have I
sought and found unbroken rest ; again I return to you?
my beloved South, and aft;er many days of storm and
1

▼iii PREFACE.

shine, I touch upon your glimmering sWes, flushed
wiiih the renewal of my passionate love for you.

Again I dive beneath your coral caves ; again I
thread the sunless depths of your unfading forests ; and
there, finally, I hope to fold my drooping wings, where
the flowers breathe heavily and fountains tinkle within
the solitude of your moonlit ivory chambers.

Oh, literary death, where is thy sting, while this happy
hunting-ground awaits me I

In the singularly expressive tongue of my barbarian
brother^

Aloha oe ! Love to you !

CONTENTS.

>

Fag*

) nr THB dUDUi or ths deip •••••••13

CHUMMINO WITH A SAVAQB :— -

I. kanI-anX ..•••••• 29

n. HOW I OOKVBRTKD MT CANNIBAL . « • • •45

m. BABBABIAN DATS $6

TABOO. — ^A Fftn DAT IN TAHITI ••••••• 76

JOS or LAHAINA ••••••••• IO3

THK HIOHT-DANCSBS OV WAIPIO • • • • • « • H?

RABL-HUNTIKO IN THE POMOTOUS •••••• I33

rVHE LABT or THI OBEAT NAVIOATOBX •••••• I54

A canob obuisb in thb cobal sea •••••• 167

UNDKB A 6BABB BOOr •••••••••I78

MT SOUTH-fiBA SHOW .«••••••• 182

VHB HOUBB or THB BYN •••••••• I98

»

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^

X CONTENTS.

Pagt

thx obafil ot thb palms •••«••• 21$

kabAli •••• 231.

LOVB-Lm nr ▲ lanai 252

IN A TRANSPORT 267

A PRODIGAL IN TAHITI • • 287

AN AFTBROLOW ••••^••••« 314

THE COCOA-TREE.

CAST on the water by a careless hand,
Day after day the winds persuaded me:
Onward I drifted till a coral tree
Stayed me among its branches, where the sand
Gathered about me, and I slowly grew.
Fed by the constant sun and the inconstant dew.

The sea-birds build their nests against my root.

And eye my slender body's homy case,

Widowed within this solitary place ;
Into the thankless sea I cast my fruit;

Joyless I thrive, for no man may partake

Of all the store I bear and harvest for his sake.

No more I heed the kisses of the mom ;

The harsh winds rob me of the life they gave ;

I watch my tattered shadow in the wave.
And hourly droop and nod my crest forlorn.

While all my fibres stiffen and grow numb

Beck'ning the tardy ships, the ships that nerer come

SUMMER CRUISING IN THE
SOUTH SEAS.

IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP.

OBTT days in ihe great desert of the sea,
— forty nights camped under doad cano-
pies, with the salt dust of the waves drift>-
ing over us. Sometimes a Bedouin sail
flashed for an hour upon the distant horizon, and then
faded, and we were alone again ; sometimes the west,
at sunset^ looked like a dty with towers, and we bore
down upon its glorified walls, seeking a haven ; but
a cold grey morning dispelled the illusion, and our
hearts sank back into the illimitable sea, breathing a
long prayer for deliverance.

Once a green oasis blossomed before us, — ^a garden
in perfect bloom, girded about with creaming waves ;
within its coral cincture pendulous boughs trailed in
the glassy waters ; from its hidden bowers spiced airs
stole down upon us ; above all the triumphant palm-
trees clashed their melodious branches like a diorns

•• • • .•• •.-.■ '- •: :

14 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

wiih cymbals ; yet from i^he very gates of Una paradise
a changeful current swept us onward^ and the happy
isle was buried in night and distance.

In many volumes of adventure I had read of sea
perils : I was at last to learn the full interpretation of
their picturesque horrors. Our little craft, the " Petrel,"
had buffeted the boisterous waves for five long weeks.
Fortunately, the bulk of her cargo was edible : we
feared neither famine nor thirst. Moreover, in spite of
the continuous gale Hiat swept us out of our reckoning,
the "Petrel " was in excellent condition, and, as far as we
could judge, we had no reason to lose confidence in her.
It was the grey weather that tried our patience and
found us wanting ; it was the unparalleled pitdiing of
the ninety-ton schooner that disheartened and almost
dismembered us. And then it was wasting time at sea.
Why were we not long before at our journey's end?
Why were we not threading the vales of some savage
island, and reaping our rich reward of ferns and shells
and gorgeous butterflies?

Uie sea rang its monotonous changes, — ^fair weather
and foul, days like death itself, followed by days full of
ihe revelations of new life, but mostly days of deadly
dulness, when the sea was as unpoetical as an eternity
of cold suds and blueing.

I cannot always understand the logical fitness of
things, or, rather, I am at a loss to know why some
ihings in life are so unfit and illogical. Of course, in
our darkest hour, when we were gathered in the con-
fines of the " Petrel's " diminutive cabin, it was our duiy
to sing psalms of hope and cheer, but we didn't. It
was a time for mutual encouragement : very few of us

IN THE CJ^ADLE OF THE DEEP. IJ

were self-sustaining, and what was to be gained by oar
oombining in unanimous despair?

Our weailier-beaten skipper, — a thing of day that
seemed utterly incapable of any expression whateyer,
save in ibe sdi^t fisicial eontortion consequent to the
mechanical movement of his lower jaw, — the ski{^r
sat, wiiii barometer in hand, eyeing the fatal finger that
pointed to our doom; the rest of us were lashed to the
legs of the centre-table, glad of any object to fix our
eyes upon, and nervously awaiting a turn in the state
of afe4, kt was ihen by no meat encouraging.

I happened to remember that there were some sealed
letters to be read from time to time on ibe passage out,
and it occurred to me ibat one of the times had come —
perhaps the last and only — ^wherein I might break the
remaining seals, and receive a sort of parting visit from
the fortunate friends on shore.

I opened one letter and read these prophetic lines :
" Dear child," — she was twice my age, and privileged
to make a pet of me, — " Dear child, I have a presenti-
ment that we shall never meet again in the flesh."

The poor girl's knowledge of past times was almost
too much for me. I shuddered where I sat, overcome
with remorse. It was enough that I had turned my
back on her and sought consolation in the treache reus
bosom of the ocean ; that, having failed to find the
spring of immortal life in human affection, I had packed
up and emigrated, content to fly the ills I had in search
of change; but that parting shot, below the water-line as
it were, — ^that was more than I asked for, and something
more than I could stomach. I returned to watch with
the rest of our little company, who dung about the

* « « • » • • •

I6 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

table with a pitiful sense of momentary security, and an
expression of pathetic condolence on every countenance,
as though each was sitting out the last hours of the
others.

Our particular bane that night was a crusty old sea-
dog whose memory of wrecks and marine disasters of
every conceivable nature was as complete as an encydo-
psedia. This ^' old man of the sea " spun his tempestuous
yam with fascinating composure, and the whole com-
pany was awed into silence with the haggard realism of
his narrative. The cabin must have been air-tight, it
was as close as possible, yet we heard the shrieking of
the wind as it tore through the rigging, and the long
hiss of the waves rushing past us with lightning speed.
Sometimes an avalanche of foam buried us for a
moment, and the " Petrel " trembled like a living thing
stricken with sudden fear ; we seemed to be hanging on
the crust of a great bubble that was, sooner or later,
certain to burst, and let us drop into its vast black
chasm, where, in Cimmerian darkness, we should be
entombed for ever.

The scenic effect, as I then considered, was unneces-
sarily vivid ; as I now recall it, it seems to me strictly
in keeping and thoroughly dramatic. At any rate, you
might have told us a dreadful story with almost fatal
success.

I had still one letter left, one bearing this suggestive
legend : " To be read in the saddest hour." Now, if
there is a sadder hour in all time than the hour of hope-
less and friendless death, I care not to know of it. I
broke the seal of my letter, feeling that something
charitable and cheering would give me strength. A few

IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP. 17

dried leayes were stored within it. The faint fragrance
of summer bowers reassured me : somewhere in the
blank world of waters there was land, and there Nature
was kind and fruitful ; out over the fearful deluge this
leaf was borne to me in the return of the invisible doye
my heart had sent forth in its extremity. A song was
written therein, perhaps a song of triumph. I could
now silence the clamorous tongue of our sea-monster,
who was glutting us with tales of horror, for a jubilee
was at hand, and here was the first note of its trumpets.
I read : —

<< Beyond the parting and the meeting,

I shall be soon;
Beyond the farewell and the greeting,
Beyond the pulse's fever-beating,

I shall be soon.'*

I paused. A night black with croaking ravens, brood-
ing over a slimy hulk, through whose warped timbers
the sea oozed, — ^that was the sort of picture that rose
before me. I looked farther for a crumb of comfort : —

*' Beyond the gathering and the strewing,

I shall be soon ;
Beyond the ebbing and the flowing,
Beyond the coming and the going,

I shall be soon."

A tide of ice-water seemed rippling up and down my
spinal column ; the marrow congealed within my bones.
But I recovered. When a man has supped full of
horror and there is no immediate climax, he can collect
himself and be comparatively brave. A reaction restored
my souL

2

l8 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

Onoe more ihe melancholy chronicler of the ill-fated
" Petrel " resumed his lugubrious narrative. I resolved
to listen, while the skipper eyed the barometer, and we
all rocked back and forth in search of the centre of
gravity, looking like a troupe of mechanical blockheads
I nodding in idiotic unison. All this time the little
craft drifted helplessly, " hove to " in the teeth of the
gale.

The sea-dog's yam was something like this : He onoe
knew a lonesome man who floated about in a water-
logged hulk for three months ; who saw all his comrades
starve and die, one after another, and at last kept watch
alone, craving and beseeching death. It was the
staunch French brig " Mouette," bound south into the
equatorial seas. She had seen rough weather from the
first : day after day the winds increased, and finally a
cyclone burst upon her with insupportable fury. The
brig was thrown upon her beam-ends, and began to fill
rapidly. With much difficidty her masts were cut away,
she righted, and lay in the trough of the sea rolling like
a log. Gradually the gale subsided, but the hull of the
brig was swept continually by the tremendous swell, and
the men were driven into the foretop cross-trees, where
^®y rigged a tent for shelter, and gathered what few
stores were left them from the wreck. A dozen wretched
souls lay in their stormy nest for three whole days in
silence and despair. By this time their scanty stores
were exhausted, and not a drop of water remained ; then
their tongues were loosened, and they railed at the
Almighty. Some wept like children, some cursed their
fate. One man alone was speechless — a Spaniard,
with a wicked light in his eye, and a repulsive man-

IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP. 19

ner lihat had made trouble in the forecastle more than
once.

When hunger had driven them nearly to madness
ihey were fed in an almost miraculous manner. Several
enormoTxs sharks had been swimmmg about the brig for
some hours, andtiie hungry saUorswL planning various
projects for the capture of them. Tough as a shark is,
they would willingly have risked life for a few raw
mouthfuls of the same. Somehow, though the sea was
still and the wind light, the brig gave a sudden lurch and
dipped up one of the monsters, who was quite secure in
the shallow aquarium between the gunwales. He was
soon despatched, and divided equally among the crew.
Some ate a little, and reserved the rest for another day;
some ate till they were sick, and had little left for the
next meal. The Spaniard with the evil eye greedily
devoured his portion, and then grew moody again, re-
fusing to speak with the others, who were striving to be
cheerful, though it was sad enough work.

When the food was all gone save a few mouthfuls
that one meagre eater had hoarded to the last, the
Spaniard resolved to secure a morsel at the risk of his
life. It had been a point of honour with the men to
observe sacredly the right of ownership, and any breach
of confidence would have been considered unpardonable
At night, when the watch was sleeping, the Spaniard
cautiously removed the last mouthful of shark hidden in
the pocket of his mate, but was immediately detected
and accused of theft. He at once grew desperate,
struck at the poor wretch whom he had robbed, missed
his blow, and fell headlong from the narrow platform in
the foretop, and was lost in the sea. It was the first

90 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

soene in ihe moumfid tragedy about to be enacted on
that limited stage.

Uiere was less disturbance after the disappearance of
the Spaniard. Hie spirits of the doomed sailors seemed
broken ; in fact, the captain was the only one whose
courage was noteworthy, and it was his indomitable will
that ultimately saved him.

One by one the minds of the miserable men gaye
way ; they became peevish or delirious, and then died
horribly. Two, who had been mates for many voyages
in the seas north and south, vanished mysteriously in
the night ; no one could tell where they went or in
what manner, though they seemed to have gone to-
gether.

Somehow these famishing sailors seemed to feel as-
sured that their captain would be saved ; they were as
confident of their own doom, and to him they entrusted
a thousand messages of love. They would Ue around
him, — ^for few of them had strength to assume a sitting
posture, — and reveal to him the story of their lives. It
was most pitiful to hear the confessions of these dying
men. One said: " I wronged my friend; I was unkind
to this one or to that one ; I deserve the heaviest
punishment God can inflict upon me"; and then he
paused, overcome with emotion. But another took up
the refrain : " I could have done much good, but I would
not, and now it is too late.'' And a third cried out in
his despair^ ^' I have committed unpardonable sins, and
there is no hope for me. Lord Jesus, have mercy 1 "
The youngest of these perishing souls was a mere lad ;
he, too, accused himself bitterly. He began his story at
the beginning, and continued it from time to time as the

JN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP. 31

spirit of revelation moved him; scarcely an incident,
however insignificant, escaped him in his pitiless retro-
spect the keen agony of that boy's recital ! more
cruel than hunger or thirst, and in comparison with
which physical torture would have seemed merciful and
any death a blessing.

While the luckless " Mouette" drifted aimlessly about,
driven slowly onward by varying winds under a cheer-
less sky, sickness visited them. Some were stricken
with scurvy ; some had lost the use of their limbs and
lay helpless, moaning and weeping hour after hour;
vermin devoured them ; and when their garments were
removed, and cleansed in the salt water, there was
scarcely sundiine enough to dry them before night, and
they were put on again, damp, stiffened with salt, and
shrunken so as to cripple the wearers, who were all
blistered and covered with boils. The nights were bitterly
cold : sometimes the icy moon looked down upon them ;
sometimes the bosom of an electric doud burst over
them, and they were enveloped for a moment in a sheet
of flame. Sharks lingered about them, waiting to feed
upon the unhappy ones who fell into the sea overcome
with physical e:diaustion, or who cast themselves from
that izzy scaffold, unable longer to endure the horrors
of lingering death. Flocks of sea-fowl hovered over
them ; the hull of the " Mouette " was crusted with barna-
cles ; long skeins of sea-grass knotted themselves in her
gaping seams ; myriads of fish darted in and out among
the clinging weeds, sporting gleefully ; schools of por-
poises leaped about them, lashing the sea into foam ;
sometimes a whale blew his long breath close under
them. Everywhere was the stir of jubilant life, — every-

12 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

where but under ihe tattered awning stretdied in the
foretop of the " Mouette."

Days and weeks dragged on. When the captain
would waken from his sleep, — ^which was not always at
night, however, for the nights were miserably cold and
sleepless, — when he wakened he would call the roll.
Perhaps some one made no answer; then he would
reach forth and touch the speechless body and find it
dead. He had not strength now to bury the corpses in
the sea's sepulchre ; he had not strength even to par-
take of the unholy feast of the inanimate flesh. Ho
lay there in the midst of pestilence ; and at night,
under the merciful veil of darkness, the fowls of the air
gathered about him and bore away their trophy of cor-
ruption.

By-and-by there were but two left of all that suffer-
ing crew, — ^the captain and the boy, — ^and these two
dung together like ghosts, defying mortality. They
strove to be patient and hopeful : if they could not eat,
they could drink, for the nights were dewy, and some-
times a mist covered them, a mist so dense it seemed
almost to drip from the rags that poorly sheltered them.
A cord was attached to the shrouds, the end of it care-
fully laid in the mouth of a bottle slung in the rigging.
Down the thin cord slid occasional drops ; one by
one they stole into the bottle, and by morning there
was a spoonful of water to moisten those parched lips,
— sweet, crystal drops, more blessed than tears, for
they are salt ; more precious than pearls. A thou-
sand prayers of gratitude seemed hardly to quiet the
souls of the lingering ones for that great charily of
Heaven*

W THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP. %l

There came a day when the hearts of God's angels
must have bled for the suffering ones. The breeze was
fresh and fair ; the sea tossed gaily its foam-crested
waves ; sea-birds soared in wider circles ; and the
donds shook out their fleecy folds, through which the
sunlight streamed in grateful warmth. The two ghosts
yere talking, as ever, of home, of earth, of land. Land,
—land anywhere, so that it were solid and broad. 0,
to pace again a whole league without turning I 0, to
pause in the shadow of some living tree I To drink of
some stream whose waters flowed continually ; flowed,
though you drank of them with the awful thirst of one
who had been denied water for weeks and weeks and
weeks, for three whole months, — an etemiiy, as it
seemed to them.

Then they pictured life as it might be if God per^
mitted them to return to earth once more. They would
pace K Street at noon, and revisit that capital res-
taurant where many a time they had feasted, though in
those days they were unknown to one another; they
would call for coffee, and this dish and that dish, and a
whole bill of fare, the thought of which made their
feverish palates grow moist again. They would meet
friends whom they had never loved as they now loved
them; they would recondle old feuds and forgive every-
body everything ; they held imaginary conversations,
and found life very beautiful and gready to be desired;
and somehow they would get back to the Uttle caf^ and
there begin eating again, and with a relish that brought
the savoury tastes and smells vividly before them, and
their lips would move and the impalpable morsels roll
sweetly over their tongues.

. ^> . ••' '

24 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

It bad become a second nature to sconr ibe borizon
witb jealous eyes; never for a moment during tbeir long
martyrdom bad tbeir covetous eyes fixed upon a station-
ary object But it came at last. Out of a doud a sail
burst like a flickering flame. Wbat an age it was
a-coming ! bow it budded and blossomed like a glorious
wbite flower, tbat was transformed suddenly into a bark
bearing down upon them I Almost witbin bail it stayed
its course ; tbe canvas fluttered in die wind; tbe dark
hull slowly rose and fell upon the water; figures moved
to and fro, — ^men, living and breathing men I Then tbe
ghosts staggered to their feet and cried to God for
mercy. Then they waved their arms, and beat tbeir
breasts, and lifted up tbeir imploring voices, beseeching
deliverance out of that horrible bondage. Tears coursed
down their hollow cheeks, tbeir limbs quaked, their
breath failed them; they sank back in despair, speeddess
and forsaken.

Why did they faint in tbe hour of deliverance when
tbat narrow chasm was all tbat separated them from
renewed life ? Because tbe .bark spread out her great
white wings and soared away, bearing not the faint
voices, seeing not the thin shadows tbat haunted that
drifting wreck. Tbe forsaken ones looked out from
tbeir eyrie, and watched the lessening sail until sight
failed them; and then the lad, with one wild cry, leaped
toward tbe fleeting bark, and was swallowed up in the
sea.

Alone in a wilderness of waters. Alone, without
compass or rudder, borne on by relentless winds into
the lonesome, dreary, shoreless ocean of despair, within
whose blank and forbidding sphere no voyager ventures;

JN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP. 25

across whose desolate waste dawn sends no signal and
night brings no reprieve; but whose sun is cold, and
whose moon is clouded, and whose stars withdraw into
space, and where the insufferable silence of vacancj shall
not be broken for all time.

O pitiless Nature I thy irrevocable laws argue sore
sacrifice in the waste places of God's universe I

The "Petrel" gave a tremendous lurch, that sent two or
three of us into the lee comers of the cabin; a sea broke
over us, bursting in the companion-hatch, and half filling
our small and insecure retreat. The swinging lamp was
thrown from its socket and extinguished; we were enve-
loped in pitch darkness, up to our knees in salt water.
There was a moment of awfiil silence; we could not tell
whether the light of day would ever visit us again ; we
thought perhaps it wouldn't. But the " Petrel " rose
once more upon the watery hill-tops, and shook herself
free of the cumbrous deluge; and at that point, when
she seemed to be riding more easily than usual, some
one broke the silence: "Well, did the captain of the
' Mouette ' live to tell the tale ?"

Tes, he did. God sent a messenger into the lonesome
deep, where the miserable man was found insensible,
with his eyes wide open against the sunlight, and lips
shrunken apart, — a hideous, eathing corpse. When
he was lifted into the arms of the brave fellows who had
gone to his rescue, he said, " Great God ! am I saved ?"
as though he couldn't believe it when it was true; then
he fainted, and was nursed through a long delirium,
and was at last restored to health and home and
happiness.

Our cabin boy managed to fish up the lamp, and after

j4 summer cruising in the south seas.

a little we were illnminated ; the agile swab soon
sponged out the cabin, and we resumed our tedious
watch for dawn and fair weather.

Somehow, my mind brooded over the solitary wreck
that was drifting about the sea. I could fancy the
rotten timbers of the " Mouette " clinging together, by
a miracle, until the " Ancient Mariner " was taken away
from her, and then, when she was alone again, with
nothing whatever in sight but blank blue sea and blank
blue sky, she lay for an hour or so, bearded with shaggy
sea-moss and looking about a thousand years old. Sud-
denly it occurred to her that her time had come, — ^that
she had outlived her usefulness, and might as well go to
pieces at once. So she yawned in all her timbers, and
the sea reached up over her, and laid hold of her masts,
and seemed to be slowly drawing her down into its
bosom. There was not an audible sound, and scarcely a
ripple upon the water; but when the waves had climbed
into the foretop, there was a clamour of affrighted birds,
and a myriad bubbles shot up to the surface, where a few
waifs floated and whirled about for a moment. It was
all that marked the spot where the "Mouette" went
down to her eternal rest.

" Ha, ha !" cried our skipper, with something ahnost
like a change of expression on his mahogany counte-
nance, " the barometer is rising 1 " and sure enough it
was. In two hours the " Petrel " acted like a different
craft entirely, and by-and-by came daybreak, and after
that the sea went down, down, down into a deep, dead
calm, when all the elements seemed to have gone to sleep
after their furious warfare. Like half-drowned flies we
crawled out of the dose, ill-smelling cabin to dry our-

aN the cradle of the deep. a;

selves in the sun: there, on the steaming deck of the
schooner, we found new life, and in the hope that dawned
with it we grew lusty and joyful.

Such a flat, oily sea as it was then I So transparent,
that we saw great fish swimming about, full fathom five
* under us. A monstrous shark drifted lazily past, his
dorsal fin now and then cutting the surface like a knife
and glistening like polished steel, his brace of pilo<>-fish
darting hither and thither, striped like little one-legged
harlequins.

Flai-headed gonies sat high on the water, piping their
querulous note as they tugged at something edible, a
dozen of them entering into the domestic difficulty : one
after another would desert the cause, run a little way
over the sea to get a good start, leap heavily into the
ab-, sail about for a few minutes, and then drop back on
the sea, feet>-foremost, and skate for a yard or two,
making a white mark and a pleasant sound as it slid
over the water.

The exquisite nautilus floated past us, with its gauzy
sail set, looking like a thin slice out of a soap-bubble ;
the strange anemone laid its pale, sensitive petals on the
lips of the wave and panted in ecstasy ; the " Petrel "
rocked softly, swinging her idle canvas in the sun ; we
heard the click of tie anchor-chain in the forecastle, the
blessedest sea-sound I wot of ; a sailor sang whilo he
hung in the ratlines and tarred down the salt-stained
shrouds. The afternoon waned ; the man at the wheel
struck two bells, — ^it was the delectable dog-watch.
Down went the swarthy sun into his tent of clouds ; the
waves were of amber ; the fervid sky was flushed ; it
looked as though something splendid were about to

a8 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

happen up there, and that it could hardly keep the
secret much longer. Then came the purplest twilight ;
and then the sky blossomed all over wii^ the biggest,
ripest, goldenest stars, — such stars as hang like fruits in
sun-fed orchards ; such stars as lay a track of fire in
the sea ; such stars as rise and set over mountains and
beyond low green capes, like young moons, every one
of them ; and I conjured up my spells of savage en-
chantment, my blessed islands, my reefs baptized with
silver spray ; I saw the broad fan-leaves of the banana
droop in the motionless air, and through the tropical
night the palms aspired heavenward, while I lay dream-
ing my sea-dream in the cradle of the deep.

}

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE.

PART L

HEBE was a little brown rain-cloud, that
blew over in about three minutes ; and
Bolabola's thatched hut was dry as a hay-
stack in less than half that time. Those
tropical sprays are not much, anyhow ; so I lounged
down into the banana-patch, for I thought I saw some-
thing white there, something white and fluttering,
moving about. I knew pretty well what it was, and
didn't go after it on an uncertainty.

The Doctor looked savage. Whenever he slung those
saddle-bags over his left shoulder, and swung his right
arm dean out from his body, like the regulator of a
steam engine, you might know that his steam was
pretty well up. I turned to look back, as he was
strapping up his beast of burden till the poor animal's
body was positively waspish ; then he climbed into his
saddle, and sullenly plunged down the trail toward the
precipice, and never said, " Good-bye," or " God bless
yoU|" or any of those harmless tags that come in so

30 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

well when you don't know how to cut off your last
words.

I positively assert, and this without malice, the Doctor
was perfectly savage.

Now, do you know what demoralized that Doctor ?
how we came to a misunderstanding ? or why we parted
company ? It was simply because here was a glorious
valley, inhabited by a mild, half-civilized people, who
seemed to love me at first sight. I don't believe I dis-
liked them, either. Well 1 they asked me to stop with
them, and I felt just like it. I wanted to stop and be
natural ; but the Doctor thought otherwise of my in-
tentions ; and that was the origin of Ihe row.

The next thing I knew, the Doctor had got up the
great precipice, and I was quite alone with two hundred
dusky fellows, only two of whom could speak a syllable
of English, and I the sole representative of the superior
white within twenty miles. Alone with cannibals, —
perhaps they were cannibals. They had magnificent
teeth, at any rate, and could bite through an inch and a
half sugar-cane, and not break a jaw.

For the first time that summer I began to moralize a
little. Was it best to have kicked against the Doctor's
judgment? Perhaps not ! But it is best to be careful
how you begin to moralize too early ; you deprive your-
self of a great deal of fun in that way. If you w^ant to
do anything particularly, I should advise you to do it,
and then be sufficiently sorry to make it all square.

I'm not so sure that I was wrong, after all. Fate, or
the Doctor, or something else, brought me first to this
loveliest of valleys, so shut out from everything but
itself that there were no temptations which might not

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. 31

be satisfied. Well! here^ as I was looking about at
the singular loveliness of the place, — ^you know this was
. my first glimpse of its abrupt walls, hung with tapestries
of fern and clambering convolvulus; at one end two
exquisite waterfalls, rivalling one another in whiteness
and airiness, at the other the sea, the real South Sea,
breaking and foaming over a genuine reef, and even
rippling the placid current of the river that slipped
quietly down to its embracing tide from the deep basins
at these waterfalls, — right in the midst of all this, before
I had been ten minutes in the valley, I saw a straw hat,
bound with wreaths of fern and maUe ; under it a snow-
white garment, rather short all around, low in the neck,
and with no sleeves whatever.

There was no sex to that garment; it was the spon-
taneous oflFspring of a scant material and a large neces-
sity. I'd seen plenty of that sort of thing, but never
upon a model like this, so entirely tropical, — almost
Oriental. As this singular phenomenon made directly
for me, and, having come within reach, there stopped
and stayed, I asked its name, using one of my seven
stock phrases for the purpose; I found it was called
E&na-an£. Down it went into my note-book; for I
knew I was to have an experience with this young
sdon of- a race of chiefs. Sure enough, I have had it.
He continued to regard me steadily, without embarrass-
ment. He seated himself before me; I felt myself at
the mercy of one whose calm analysis was questioning
every motive of my soul. This sage inquirer was,
perhaps, sixteen years of age. His eye was so earnest
and so honest, I could return his look. I saw a round,
full, rather girlish face; lips ripe and expressive, not

32 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

quite SO sensual as those of most of his race; not a bad
nose, by any means; eyes perfectly glorious, — regular
almonds, — ^wiih the mythical lashes " that sweep," etc.,
eta The smile which presently transfigured his face
was of the nature that flatters you into submission
against your will.

Haying weighed me in his balance, — and you may
be sure his instincts didn't cheat him; they don't do
that sort of thing, — ^he placed his two hands on my two
knees, and declared, ^^ I was his best friend, as he was
mine; I must come at once to his house, and there live
always with him." What could I do but go? He
pointed me to his lodge across the river, saying, " There
was his home and mine." By this time, my native
without a master was quite exhausted. I wonder what
would have happened if some one hadn't come to my
rescue, just at iliat moment of trial, with a fresh vocabu-
lary? As it was, we settled the matter at once. This
was our little plan, — ^an entirely private arrangement
between Kdna-and and myself: I was to leave with the
Doctor in an hour; but, at the expiration of a week we
should both return hither; then I would stop with him,
and the Doctor could go his way.

There was an immense amount of secrecy, and many
vows, and I was almost crying, when the Doctor hurried
me up that terrible precipice, and we lost sight of the
beautiful valley. Kan&-and, swore he would watch con-
tinually for my return, and I vowed I'd hurry back;
and so we parted. Looking down from the heights^ I
thought I could distinguish his white garment; at any
rate, I knew the little fellow was somewhere about,
feeling as miserably as I felt, — and nobody has any

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. 33

business to feel worse. How many times I thought of
him through the week ! I was always wondering if he
still thought of me. I had found those natives to be
impulsive, demonstrative, and, I feared, inconstant. Yet
why should he forget me, having so little to remember
in his idle life, while I could still think of him, and
put aside a hundred pleasant memories for his sake?
The whole island was a delight to me. I often won-
dered if I should ever again behold such a series of
valleys, hills, and highlands in so small a compass.
That land is a world in miniature, the dearest spot of
which, to me, was that secluded valley; for there was
a young soul watching for my return.

That was rather a slow week for me, but it ended
finally; and just at sunset, on the day appointed, the
Doctor and I found ourselves back on the edge of the
valley. I looked all up and down its green expanse,
regarding every living creature, in the hope of dis-
covering K^tna^nd. in the attitude of the watcher. I
let the Doctor ride ahead of me on the trail to Bola-
bola's hut, and it was quite in the twilight when I
heard the approach of a swift horseman. I turned, and
at that moment there was a collision of two constitutions
that were just fitted for one another; and all the doubts
and apprehensions of the week just over were indig-
nantly dismissed, for Kd>na-an& and I were one and
inseparable, which was perfectly satisfactory to both
parties!

The plot, which had been thickening all the week,
cnlminated then, much to the disgust of the Doctor,
who had kept his watchful eye upon me all these days —
to my advantage, as he supposed. There was no dis-

3

34 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

guising our project any longer, so I out with it as
mildly as possible. " Iliere was a dear fellow here," I
said, " who loved me, and wanted me to live with him;
all his people wanted me to stop, also; his mother and
his grandmother had specially desired it. They didn't
care for money; they had much love for me, and there-
fore implored me to stay a little. Then the valley was
most beautifiil; I was tired; after our hard riding, I
needed rest; his mother and his grandmother assured
me that I needed rest. Now, why not let me rest here
awhile?"

The Doctor looked very grave. I knew that he mis-
understood me, — placed a wrong interpretation upon my
motives ; the worse for him, I say. He tried to talk
me over to the paths of virtue and propriety ; but I
wouldn't be talked over. Then the final blast was blown ;
war was declared at once. The Doctor never spoke
again, but to abuse me ; and off he rode in high dud-
geon, and the sun kept going down on his wrath.
Thereupon I renounced all the foUies of this world,
actually hating civilization, and feeling entirely above
the formalities of sodeiy. I resolved on the spot to be
a barbarian, and, perhaps, dwell for ever and ever in this
secluded spot. And here I am back to the beginning of
this story, just after the shower at Bolabola's hut, as the
Doctor rode off alone and in anger.

That resolution was considerable for me to make. I
found, by the time the Doctor was out of sight and I
was quite alone, with the natives regarding me so curi-
ously, that I was very tired indeed. So K4na-«n4
brought up his horse, got me on to it in some way or
otheri and mounted behind me to pilot the animal and

VHUMMING WITH A SA VAGE. 35

snstain me in mj first bareback act. Over tbe sand we
went, and through the river to his hut, where I was
taken in, fed, and petted in every possible way, and
finally put to bed, where Kdna-^ani monopolized me,
growling in true savage £Eishion if any one came near
me. I didn't sleep much, after all. I think I must
have been excited. I thought how strangely I was
situated : alone in a wilderness, among barbarians ; my ,
bosom friend, who was hugging me like a young bear,
not able to speak one syllable of English, and I very
shaky on a few bad phrases in his tongue. We two lay
upon an enormous old-fashioned bed with high posts, —
very high they seemed to me in the dim rushlight. The
natives always bum a small light after dark; some
superstition or other prompts it. The bed, well stocked
with pillows, or cushions, of various sizes, covered with
bright-coloured chintz, was hung about with nume-
rous shawls, so that I might be dreadfully modest behind
them. It was quite a grand affiiir, gotten up expressly
for my benefit. The rest of the house — ^all in on^ room,
as usual — was covered with mats, on which various re-
cumbent forms and several individual snores betrayed
the proximity of Kd>na-and's relatives. How queer the
whole atmosphere of the place was 1 The heavy beams
of the house were of some rare wood, which, being
polished, looked like colossal sticks of peanut candy.
Slender canes were bound across this framework, and
the soft, dried grass of the meadows was braided over
it, — all completing our tenement, and making it as fresh
and sweet as new-mown hay.

The natives have a passion for perfumes. Little
bunches of sweetnunelling herbs hung in the peak of the

36 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

roof, and wreaths of fragrant berries were strung in
various parts of the house. I found our bedposts fes-
tooned with them in the morning. that bed ! It
might have come from England in the Elizabethan era
and been wrecked off the coast ; hence the mystery of
its presence. It was big enough for a Mormon. There
was a little opening in the room opposite our bed ; you
might call it a window, I suppose. The sun, shining
through it, made our tent of shawls perfectly gorgeous
in crimson light, barred and starred with gold. I lifted
our bed-curtain, and watched the rocks through this
window,— the shining rocks, with the sea leaping above
them in the sun. There were cocoa-palms so slender
they seemed to cast no shadow, while their fringed leaves
glistened like frost-work as the sun glanced over them.
A bit of diff, also, remote and misty, running &r into
the sea, was just visible from my pyramid of pillows.
I wondered what more I could ask for to delight the
eye. K&na-an& was still asleep, but he never let loose
Ids hold on me, as though he feared his pale-faced friend
would fisuie away from him. He lay close by me. His
sleek figure, supple and graceftd in repose, was the em-
bodiment of free, untrammelled youth. You who are
brought up under cover know notliing of its luxurious-
ness. How I longed to take him over the sea with me,
and show him something of life as we find it. Thinking
upon it, I dropped off into one of those delicious morning
naps. I awoke again presently; my companion-in-arms
was the occasion this time. He had awakened, stolen
softly away, resumed his single garment, — said garment
and all others he considered superfluous after dark, —
and had prepared for me, with his own hands, a break-

CHUMMING WITH A SA VAGE, 37

fiist, which he now declared to me, in violent and sug-
gestive pantomime, was all ready to be eaten. It was
not a bad bill of fare, — afresh fish, taro, poe, and goat's
milk. I ate as well as I could, under the circumstances.
I found that Bobinson Crusoe must have had some
tedious rehearsals before he acquired that perfect resig-
nation to Providence which delights us in book form.
There was a veritable and most unexpected table-cloth
for me alone. I do not presume to question the nature
of its miraculous appearance. Dishes there were, —
dishes, if you're not particular as to shape or complete-
ness ; forks, with a prong or two, — a bent and abbre-
viated prong or two ; knives that had survived their
handles ; and one solitary spoon. All these were tributes
of the too generous people, who, for the first time in
their lives, were at the inconvenience of entertaining a
distinguished stranger. Hence this reckless display of
tableware. I ate as well as 1 could, but surely not
enough to satisfy my crony; for, when I had finished
eating, he sat about two hours in deep and depressing
silence, at ihe expiration of which time he suddenly
darted off on his bareback steed and was gone till dark,
when he returned with a &t mutton slung over his
animal. Now, mutton doesn't grow wild thereabout,
neither were his relatives shepherds ; consequently, in
eating, I asked no questions for conscience' sake.

The series of entertainments offered me were such as
the little valley had not known for years: canoe-rides up
and down the winding stream ; bathings in the sea and
in the river, and in every possible bit of water, at all
possible hours ; expeditions into the recesses of the
mountains, to the waterfalls that plunged into cool

38 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

basins of fern and cresses, and to the orange grove
through acres and acres of goava orchards ; some
climbings up the precipices ; goat hunting, once or
twice, as far as a solitary cavern, said to be haunted, —
these tramps always by daylight ; then a new course of
bathings and sailings, interspersed with monotonous
singing and occasional smokes nnder the eaves of the
hut at evening.

If it is a question how long a man may withstand the
seductions of nature, and the consolations and con-
veniences of the state of nature, I have solved it in
one case ; for I was as natural as possible in about
three days.

I wonder if I was growing to feel more at home, or
more hungry, that I found an appetite at last equal to
any table that was oflTered me 1 Chicken was added to
my already bountiful rations, nicely cooked by being
swathed in a broad, succulent leaf, and roasted or
steeped in hot ashes. I ate it with my fingers, using
the leaf for a platter.

Almost every day something new was offered at the
door for my edification. Now, a net fiill of large guavas
or mangoes, or a sack of leaves crammed with most de«
licious oranges from the mountains, that seemed to have
absorbed the very dew of heaven, they were so fresh
and sweet. Immense lemons perfumed the house, wait-
ing to make me a capital drink. Those superb citrons,
with their rough, golden crusts, refreshed me. Cocoa-
nuts were heaped at the door ; and yams, grown miles
away, were sent for, so that I might be satisfied. All
these additions to my table were the result of long and
vigorous arguments between the respective heads of the

CHUMMING WITH A SA VAGE. ' 39

boase. I detected trouble and anxieij in their expres-
sive &ces. I picked out a word, here and there, which
betrayed their secret sorrow. No assertions, no remon-
strances on my part, had the slightest e£Pect upon the
poor souls, who believed I was starving. Eat I must,
at all hours and in all places ; and eat, moreover, before
they would touch a mouthful. So Nature teaches her
children a hospitality which all the arts of the capital
cannot affect.

I wonder what it was that finally made me restless
and eager to see new feces 1 Perhaps my unhappy dis-
position, that urged me thither, and then lured me back
to the pride of life and the glory of the world. Certain
I am that Kdna-an& never wearied me with his atten-
tions, though they were incessant. Day and night he
was by me. When he was silent, I knew he was con-
ceiving some surprise in the shape of a new fruit, or a
new view to beguile me. I was, indeed, beguiled; I
was gro^dng to like the little heathen altogether too
welL What should 1 do when I was at last compelled
to return out of my seclusion, and find no soul so faith-
ful and loving in all the world beside ? Day by day this
thought grew upon me, and with it I realized the neces-
sity of a speedy departure.

There were those in the world I could still remember
with that exquisitely painftil pleasure that is the secret of
true love. Those still voices seemed incessantly calling
me, and something in my heart answered them of its
own accord. How strangely idle the days had grown !
We used to lie by the hour — K&na-and. and I — watching
a strip of sand on which a wild poppy was nodding in
the wind. This poppy seemed to me typical of their life

40 SUHiMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

in the quiet yallej. Living only to occupy so much
space in the universe^ it buds^ blossoms^ goes to seed,
dies, and is forgotten.

These natives do not even distinguish the memory of
&eir great dead, if they ever had any. It was the legend
of some mythical god that Kdna-and told me, and of
which I could not understand a twentieth part; a god
whose triumphs were achieved in an age beyond the
comprehension of the very people who are delivering its
story, by word of mouth, from generation to generation.
Watching the sea was a great source of amusement
with us. I discovered in our long watches that there
is a very complicated and magnificent rhythm in its
solemn song. This wave that breaks upon the shore
is the heaviest of a series that preceded it ; and these
are greater and less, alternately, every fifteen or twenty
minutes. Over this dual impulse the tides prevail, while
through the year there is a variation in their rise and
fall. What an intricate and wonderftd mechanism regu-
lates and repairs all this I

There was an entertainment in watching a particular
cUfi^, in a peculiar light, at a certain hour, and finding
soon enough that change visited even that hidden quar-
ter of the globe. The exquisite perfection of this mo-
ment, for instance, is not again repeated on to-morrow,
or the day aftier, but in its stead appears some new tint
or picture, which, perhaps, does not satisfy like this.
That was the most distressing disappointment that came
upon us there. I used to spend half an hour in idly
observing the splendid curtains of our bed swing in the
light air from the sea ; and I have speculated for days
upon the probable destiny awaiting one of those superb

^HUMMING WITH A SA VAGE. 41

spiders, wiili a tremendous stomach and a striped waist-
coat, looking a centarj old, as he clung tenaciouslj to
the fringes of our canopy.

We had fitftd spells of conversation upon some trivial
theme, after long intervals of intense silence. We began
to develope symptoms of imbecility. There was laughter
at the least occurrence, though quite barren of humour;
also, eating and drinking to pass the time; bathing to
make one's self cool, after the heat and drowsiness of
the day. So life flowed on in an unruffled current, and
so the prodigal lived riotously and wasted his substance.
There came a day when we promised ourselves an actual
occurrence in our Crusoe life. Some one had seen a
floating object &.r out at sea. It might be a boat adrift;
and, in truth, it looked very like a boat. Two or three
canoes darted off through the surf to the rescue, while
we gathered on the rocks, watching and ruminating.
It was long before the rescuers returned, and then they
came empty-handed. It was only a log after all, drifted,
probably, from America. We talked it aU over, there
by the shore, and went home to renew the subject ; it
lasted us a week or more, and we kept harping upon it
till that log— drifting slowly, how slowly I from the
fer mainland to our island — seemed almost to overpower
me with a sense of the unutterable loneliness of its
voyage. I used to lie and think about it, and get very
solemn indeed ; then K&na-and would think of some
fresh appetizer or other, and try to make me merry with
good feeding. Again and again he would come with a
delicious banana to the bed where I was lying, and insist
upon my gorging myself, when I had but barely re-
covered from a late orgie of fruit, flesh, or fowl He

4^ SUMMER CRUlSim W THE SOUTH SEAS.

would mesmerize me into a most refreshing sleep with a
prolonged and pleasing manipulation. It was a remi-
niscence of the baths of Stamboul not to be withstood.
From this sleep I would presently be wakened by Kiin4-
and's performance upon a rude sort of harp, that gave
out a weird and eccentric music. The moutii being ap-
plied to the instrument, words were pronounced in a
guttural voice, while the fingers twanged the strings in
measure. It was a flow of monotones, shaped into
legends and lyrics. I hked it amazingly ; all the better,
perhaps, that it was as good as Greek to me, for I
understood it as little as I understood the strange and
persuasive silence of that beloved place, which seemed
slowly but surely weaving a spell of enchantment about
me. I resolved to desert peremptorily, and managed
to hire a canoe and a couple of natives, to cross the
channel with me. There were other reasons for this
prompt action.

Hour by hour I was beginning to realize one of the
inevitable results of Time. My boots were giving out ;
their best sides were the uppers, and their soles had
about left them. As I walked, I could no longer dis-
guise this pitiful fact. It was getting hard on me,
especially in the gravel. Yet, regularly each morning,
my pieces of boot were carefully oiled, then rubbed, or
petted, or coaxed into some sort of a polish, which was a
labour of love. K&na-an£ f how could you wring my
soul with those touching offices of friendship I — ^those
kindnesses unfailing, unsurpassed I

Having resolved to sail early in the morning, before
the drowsy citizens of the valley had fairly shaken the
dew out of their forelocks, all that day — ^my last with

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE, 43

Kd^na-an^l — I breathed about me sHent benedictions and
farewells. I could not begin to do enough for K&na-
anfi, who was, more than ever, devoted to me. He
almost seemed to suspect our sudden separation, for he
dung to me with a sort of subdued desperation. That
was the day he took from his head his hat — a very neat
one, plaited by his mother — ^insisting that I should wear
it (mine was quite in tatters), while he went bareheaded
in the sun. That hat hangs in my room now, the only
tangible relic of my procUgal days. My plan was to
steal off at dawn, while he slept ; to awaken my native
crew, and escape to sea before my absence was detected.
I dared not trust a parting with him, before the eyes of
the valley. Well, I managed to wake and rouse my
sailor boys. To tell the truth, I didn't sleep a wink
that night. We launched the canoe, entered, put off,
and had safely mounted the second big roller just as
it broke under us with terrific power, when I heard
a shrill cry above the roar of the waters. I knew the
voice and its import. There was Kd.na-an£ rushing
madly toward us ; he had discovered all, and couldn't
even wait for that white garment, but ran after us like
one gone daft, and plunged into tho cold sea, calling my ^
name, over and over, as he fought the breakers. 1
urged the natives forward. I knew if he overtook us, I
should never be able to escape again. We fairly flew ^
over the water. I saw him rise and fall with the swell,
looking like a seal ; for it was his second nature, this
surf-swimming. I believe in my heart I wished the
paddles would break or the canoe split on the reef,
though all the time I was urging the rascals forward ;
and they, like stupids, took me at my word. They

44 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

couldn't break a paddle, or get on the reef, or have any
sort of an accident Presently we rounded the head-
land, — ^the same hazy point I used to watch from the
grass house, through the little window, of a sunshiny
morning. There we lost sight of the valley and the
grass house, and everything tbat was associated with the
past, — ^but that was nothing. We lost sight of the
little sea-god, K&na-and, shaking the spray from his
forehead like a porpoise ; and this was all in all. I
didn't care for anything else after that, or anybody else,
either. I went straight home and got civilized again,
or partly so, at least I've never seen the Doctor since,
and never want to. He had no business to take me
there, or leave me there. I couldn't make up my mind
to stay ; yet I'm always dying to go back again.

So I grew tired over my husks. I arose and went
unto my father. I wanted to finish up the Prodigal
business. I ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him,
and said unto him, " Father, if I have sinned against
Heaven and in thy sight, I'm afraid I don't care much.
Don't kill anything. I don't want any calf. Take
back the ring, I don't deserve it ; for I'd give more this
minute to see that dear, little, velvet-skinned, coffee-
coloured K&na-and, than anything else in the wide
world, — ^because he hates business, and so do I. He's a
regular brick, father, moulded of the purest day, and
baked in God's sunshine. He's about half sunshine
himself ; and, above all others, and more than any one
else ever can, he loved your prodigal"

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. 45

PART IL

HOW I OONVEBTBD MT CANNIBAL.

WiaEN people began asking me queer questions about
my chum Kdna-and^ some of them even hinting that
"he might possibly have been a girl all the time," I
resolved to send down for him, and settle the matter
at once. I knew he was not a girl, and I thought I
should like to show him some American hospitality, and
perhaps convert him before I sent him back again.

I could teach him to dress, you know; to say a very
good thing to your face, and a very bad one at your
back; to sleep well in church, and rejoice duly when the
preacher got at last to the " Amen." I might do all
this for his soul's sake; but I wanted more to see how
the little fellow was getting on. I missed him so ter-
ribly, — ^his honest way of showing likes and dislikes; his
confidence in his intuitions and fidelity to his friends;
and those quaint manners of his, so different from any-
thing in vogue this side of the waters.

This is what I remarked when I got home again, and
found myself growing as practical and prosy as ever.
I awoke no kindred chord in the family bosom. On the
contrary, they all said, " It was no use to think of it: no
good could come out of Nazareth." The idea of a hea-
then and his abominable idolatry being countenanced in
the sanctity of a Christian home was too dreadful for
anything. But I believed some good might come out of
Nazareth, and I believed that, when it did come, it was
the genuine article worth hunting for, surely* I thought

46 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

it all over soberly, finally resolving to do a little mis-
sionary work on my own account. So I wrote to the
Colonel of the Eoyal Guards, who knows everybody
and has immense influence everywhere, begging him to
catch Eiruar^m^, when his folks weren't looking, and
send him to my address, marked C. 0. D., for I was
just dying to see him. That was how I trapped my
little heathen, and began to be a missionary, all by
myself.

I assured the Colonel it was a case of real necessity,
and he seemed to realize it, for he managed to get
K&na-an& away from his distressed relatives (their name
is legion, and they live all over the island), fit him out
in redl clothing, — the poor little wretch had to be
dressed, you know; we all do it in this country, — ^then
he packed him up and shipped him, care of the captxiin

of the bark S . When he arrived, I took him right

to my room and began my missionary work. I tried to
make all the people love him, but I'm afraid they found
it hard work. He wasn't half so interesting up here
anyhow 1 I seemed to have been regarding him through
chromatic glasses, which glasses being suddenly removed,
I found a little dark-skinned savage, whose doihes fitted
him horribly, and appeared to have no business there.
Boots about twice too long, the toes being heavily
charged with wadding; in fact, he looked perfectly mise-
rable, and I've no doubt he felt so. How he had been
studying English on the voyage up I He wanted to be
a great linguist, and had begun in good earnest. He
said " good mornin' " as boldly as possible about seven
p.m., and invariably spoke of the women of America as
^^ him." He had an insane desire to spell, and started

CHVMMING WITH A SAVAGE. 47

spelling-matehes with everybody, at tiie most inappro-
priate hours and inconvenient places. He invariably
spelled God d-o-g; when duly corrected, — ^thus, G-o-d,
— ^he would triumphandy shout, dog. He jumped at
iliese irreverent condusions about twenty times a day.

What an experience I had educating my little savage 1
Walking him in the street by the hour; answering
questions on all possible topics; spelling up and down
the blocks; spelling from the centre of the city to the
suburbs and back again, and around it ; spelling one
another at spelling, — ^two latter-day peripatetics on dress
parade, passing to and fro in high and serene strata of
philosophy, alike unconscious of the rudely gazing and
ilisolent citizens, or the tedious calls of labour. A spell
was over us: we ran into all sorts of people, and trod on
many a com, loafing about in this way. Some of the
victims objected in harsh and sinful language. I found
Kdna^n^ had so &.r advanced in the acquirement of our
mellifluous tongue as to be very successful in returning
their salutes. I had the greatest difficulty in convincing
him of the enormity of his error. The little convert
thought it was our mode of greeting strangers, equiva-
lent to their more graceful and poetic password, Aloha j
" Love to you."

My little cannibal wasn't easily accustomed to his
new restraints, such as clothes, manners, and forbidden
water privileges. He several times started on his daily
pilgrimage without his hat; once or twice, to save time,
put his coat on next his skin; and though I finally so &r
conquered him as to be sure that his shirt would be worn
on ilie inside instead of the outside of his trousers (this
he considered a great waste of material), I was in con-

48 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

stant terror of his suddenly disrobing in the street and
plunging into the first water we came to, — ^which bar-
barous act would have insured his immediate arrest,
perhaps confinement; and that would have been the next
thing to death in his case.

So we perambulated the streets and the suburbs,
daily growing into each other's grace ; and I was
thinking of the propriety of instituting a series of more
extended excursions, when I began to realize that my
guest was losing interest in our wonderful diy and the
^ssible magnitude of her future.

He grew silent and melancholy; he quitted spellinor
entirely, or only indulged in rare and fitful (I am pained
to add, fruitless) attempts at spelling God in the ortho-
dox £skshion. It seemed almost as though I had missed
my calling; certainly, I was hardly successful as a
missionary.

The circus fiuled to revive him; the beauiy of our
young women he regarded without interest. He was
less devout than at first, when he used to insist upon
entering every church we came to and sitting a few
moments, though frequently we were the sole occupants
of the building. He would steal away into remote cor-
ners of the house, and be gone for hours. Twice or
three times I discovered him in a dark closet, in puria
naturalilmsy toying with a singular shell strung upon a
I feather chain. The feathers of the chain I recognized
as those of a strange bird held as sacred among his
people. I began to suspect the occasion of his malady:
he believed himself bewitched or accursed of some one,
— a conmion superstition with the dark races. This
revebition filled me with alarm ; for he would think

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. 49

nothing of lying down to die under the impression that
it was his fete, and no medicine under the heaven could
touch him further.

I began telling him of mj discovery, begging his
secret from him. In vain I besought him. ^^ It was
his trouble; he must go back I" I told him he should
go back as soon as possible; that we would look for
ourselves, and see when a vessel was to saQ again. I
took him among the wharves, visiting, in turn, nearly
all the shipping moored there. How he lingered about
them, letting his eyes wander over the still bay into the
mellow hazes that sometimes visit our brown and dusiy
hills!

His nature seemed to find an affinity in the tranquil
tides, the &r-sweeping distances, tiie alluring outlines
of tiie coast, where it was blended witii tiie sea-line in
the ever-mysterious horizon. After these visitations, he
seemed loath to return again among houses and people;
they oppressed and sufibcated him.

One day, as we were wending our way to the ciiy
front, we passed a specimen of grotesque carving, in
front of a tobacconist's establishment. E&nar«n& stood
eyeing the painted model for a moment, and then, to
the amazement and amusement of tiie tobacconist and
one or two bystanders, fell upon his knees before it, and
was for a few moments lost in prayer. It seemed to do
him a deal of good, as he was more cheerM after his
invocation, — ^for that day, at least; and we could never
start upon any subsequent excursion without first visit-
ing this wooden Indian, which he evidenily mistook for
a god.

He began presently to bring tributes, in tiie shape of

4

50 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

small cobble-stones, wluch be surreptitiously deposited
at the feet of his new-found deity, and passed on, rejoic-
ing. His small altar grew from day to day, and his
spirits were lighter as he beheld it unmolested, thanks
to the indifference of the tobacconist and the street con-
tractors.

His greatest trials were within the confines of the
bath-tub. He who had been bom to the Pacific, and
reared among its foam and breakers, now doomed to a
seven-by-three zinc box and ten inches of water I He
would splash about like a trout in a saucer, bemoaning
his &te. Pilgrimages to the beach were his greatest
delight; divings into the sea, so far from town that no
one could possibly be shocked, even with the assistance
of an opera-glass. He used to implore a daily repetition
of these cautious and inoffensive recreations, though,
once in the chilly current, he soon came out of it,
shivering and miserable. Where were his warm sea-
waves, and the shining beach, with the cocoa-pahns
quivering in tiie intense fires of the tropical day ? How
he missed them and mourned for them, crooning a little
diant in their praises, much to the disparagement of our
dry hills, cold water, and careAil people !

In one of our singular walks, when he had been
unusually silent, and I had sought in vain to lift away
!lie gloom that darkened his soul, I was startled by a
quick cry of joy fr<Mn the lips of the young exile, — ^a cry
ttiat was soon turned into a sharp, prolonged, and pitiful
wwl of sorrow and despair. We had unconsciously
approached an art-gallery, the deep windows of whidh
were beautified with a few choice landscapes in oil.
K4na-an&'s restless and searching eye, doubtless attracted

CHUMMING WITH A SA VAGE. 51

by the brilliant colouring of one of the pictures, seemed
in a moment to comprehend and assume the rich and
fervent spirit with which the artist had so successfidly
imbued his canvas.

It was the subject which had at first delighted E&na-
an&, — ^the splendid charm of its manipulation which so
affected him, holding him there wailing in the bitterness
of a natural and incontrollable sorrow. The painting
was illuminated with the mellowness of a tropical sunset.
A transparent light seemed to transfigure the sea and
sky. The artist had wrought a miracle in his inspira-
tion. It was a warm, hazy, silent sunset for ever. The
outline of a high, projecting cliff was barely visible in
the flood of misty glory that spread over the face of it,
— a cliff whose delicate tints of green and crimson pic-
tured in the mind a pyramid of leaves and flowers. A
valley opened its shadowy depths through the sparkling
atmosphere, and in the centre of this veiled chasm the
pale threads of two water&lls seemed to appear and
disappear, so exquisitely was the distance imitated.
Gilded breakers reeled upon a palm-fringed shore ; and
the whole was hallowed by the perpetual peace of an
unbroken solitude.

I at once detected the occasion of E^na-and's agita-
tion. Here was the valley of his birth, — ^the diff, the
water&ll, the sea, copied faithfrdly, at that crowning
hour when they are indeed supernaturally lovely. At
that moment, the promise to him of a return
would have been mockery. He was there in spirit,
pacing tiie beach, and greeting his companions with
that liberal exchange of love peculiar to them. Again
he sought our old haunt by the river, watching the sun

Sa SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

go down. Again he waited listlessly the coming of
night.

It was a wonder that the police did not march ns
both off to the station-honse ; for the little refugee was
howling at the top of his lungs, while I endeavoured to
quiet him by bursting a sort of vocal tornado about his
ears. I then saw my error. I said to myself, " I have
transplanted a flower from the hot sand of the Orient to
the hard day of our more material world, — a flower too
fragile to be handled, if never so kindly. Day after
day it has been fed, watered, and nourished by Nature.
Every element of life has ministered to its development
in the most natural way. Its attributes are G-od's and
Nature's own. I bring it hither, set it in our tough
soil, and endeavour to train its sensitive tendrils in one
direction. There is no room for spreading them here,
where we are overcrowded already. It finds no succu-
lence in its cramped bed, no warmth in our practical
and selfish atmosphere. It withers from the root up-
ward ; its blossoms are fiilling ; it wiQ die I " I re-
solved it should not die. Unfortunately, there was no
bark announced to sail for his island home within
several weeks. I could only devote my energies to
keeping life in that famishing soul until it had found
rest in the luxurious dime of its nativity.

At last the bark arrived. We went at once to see
her ; and I could hardly persuade the little homesick
soul to come back with me at night. He who was the
fire of ^ hospitality and obliging to the uttermost^ at
home, came very near to mutiny just then.

It was this civilization that had wounded him, till the
thought of his easy and pleasurable life among the

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. 53

barbarians stung him to madness. Should ho ever see
ihem again^ his lovers? ever climb with the goat-
hunters among the clouds yonder ? or bathe, ride, sport,
as he used to, till the day was spent and tiie night
come?

Those little booths near the wharves, where shells,
corals, and gold-fish are on sale, were Kdnarand's
fiivourite haunts during the last few days he spent here.
I would leave him seated on a box or barrel by one of
those epitomes of Oceanica, and return two hours later,
to find him seated as I had left him, and singing some
weird m^fo, — some legend of his home. These musical
diversions were a part of his nature, and a very grave
and sweet part of it, too. A few words, chanted on a
low note, began the song, when the voice would sud-
denly soar upward with a single syllable of exceeding
sweetness, and there hang trembling in bird-like melody
till it died away with the breath of the singer.

Poor, longing soul I I would you had never left the
life best suited to you, — ^that liberiy which alone could
give expression to your wonderfiil capacities. Not
many are so rich in instincts to read Nature, to trans-
late her revelations, to speak of her as an orator en-
dowed with her surpassing eloquence.

It will always be a sad efibrt, thinking of that last
night together. There are hours when the experiences
of a lifetime seem compressed and crowded together.
One grows a head taller in his soul at such times, and
perhaps gets suddenly grey, as with a fright, also.

Kdna-an& talked and talked in his pretty, broken
English, telling me of a thousand charming secrets ; ex-
pressing all the natural graces that at first attracted me

54 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

to him, and imploring me over and over to return with
him and dwell in the antipodes. How near I came to
resolving, then and there, that I would go, and take the
consequences, — ^how very near I came to it I He passed
the night in coaxing, promising, entreating ; and was
never more interesting or lovable. It took just about
all the moral courage allotted me to keep on ihis side of
barbarism on that eventM occasion ; and in the morn-
ing KiiDaran& sailed, with a &ce all over tears, and
agony, and dust.

I begged him to select something for a remembrancer;
and of all that ingenuity can invent and art achieve he
chose a metallic chain for his neck, — chose it, probably,
because it glittered superbly, and was good to string
charms upon. He gave me the greater part of his
wardrobe, though it can never be of any earthly use to
me, save as a memorial of a passing joy in a life where
joys seem to have little else to do than be brief and
palatable.

He said he should ^^ never want them again " ; and
he said it as one might say something of the same sort
in putting by some instrument of degradation,-oon.
sdous of renewed manhood, but remembering his late
humiliation, and bowing to that remembrance.

So K&na-and and the bark, and all that I ever knew
of genuine, spontaneous, and unfettered love, sailed into
the west, and went down with the sun in a glory of
air, sea, and sky, trebly glorious that evening. I shall
never meet the sea when it is bluest without thinking of
one who is its child and master. I shall never see man-
goes and bananas without thinking of him who is their
brother, bom and brought up with them. I i^ll never

CHUMMING WITH A SA VA GR. 55

smell cassia^ or cloye^ or jessamine, but a thonght of
Kdna-and will be borne upon iheir breath. A flying
skiff, land in the far distance rising slowly, drifting sea-
grasses, a clear voice burdened with melody, — all belong
to him, and are a part o£ him.

I resign my office. I think that, perhaps, instead of
my having converted the little cannibal, he may have
converted me. I am sure, at least, that if we two should
begin a missionary work upon one another, I should be
the first to experience the great change. I sent my
convert home, feeling he wasn't quite so good as when I
first got him ; and I truly wish him as he was.

I can see you, my beloved, — sleeping, naked, in the
twilight of the west. The winds kiss you with pure and
fragrant lips. The sensuous waves invite you to their
embrace. Earth again offers you her varied store. Par-
take of her offering, and be satisfied. Return, trou-
bled soul 1 to your first and natural joys : they were
given you by tiie Divine hand that can do no ill. In
the smoke of the sacrifice ascends the prayer of your
race. As the incense fadeth and is scattered upon the
winds of heaven, so shall your people separate, never
more to assemble among tiie nations. So perish your
superstitions, your necromancies, your ancient arts of
war, and the unwritten epics of your kings.

Alas, K&nar-and I As the foam of the sea you love,
as the fragrance of the flower you worship, shall your
precious body be wasted, and your untrammelled soul
pass to the realms of your fathers.

Our day of communion is over. Behold how Night

56 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

extends her wings to ooTer you from mj sight I She
may, indeed^ hide your presence ; she may withhold from
me the mystery of your ftiture : but ^e cannot take
>om me tbat which I have ; she cannot rob me of the
rich influences of your past.

Dear comrade, pardon and absolve your spiritual ad-
viser, for leeking to remould so delicate and original a
soul as yours ; and, though neither prophet nor priest,
I yet give you the kiss of peace at parting, and the
benediction of unceasing love.

PART m.

BIBBABIAK DATS.

Wx had been watching intently the &int, shadowy
outline along the horizon, and wondering whether it
were really land, or but a cloudy similitude of it ; while
we bore down upon it all the afternoon in fine style, and
the breeze freshened as evening came on. It was all
dear sailing, and we were in pretty good spirits, — ^which
is not always the case with landsmen at sea.

Sitting there on the after-deck, I had asked myself,
more than once. If life were made up of placid days like
this, how long would life be sweet? I gave it up every
time ; for one is not inclined to consider so curiously
as to press any problem to a solution in those indolent
latitudes.

Perhaps it was Captain Kidd who told me he had
sailed out of a twelve->knot breeze on a sudden, — ^slipping

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. 57

off iiie edges of it, as it were, — and found his sails all
aback as he slid into a dead calm. There, rocking in
still weather, he saw another bark, almost within hafl^
blown into the west and out of sight, like a bird in a
March gale.

I wonder what caused me to think of Kidd*s experi-
ences just then. I can't imagine, unless it was some
prescient shadow floating in my neighbourhood, — ^the
precursor of the little event that followed. Such things
do happen, and when we least expect it ; though, fortu-
nately, they don't worry us as a general thing. I didn't
worry at all, but sat there by myself, while some of my
fellow-passengers took a regular ^^constitutional" up
and down the deck, and oyer and oyer it, until the ner-
vous woman below in the cabin ^^ blessed her stars," and
wished herself ashore.

I preferred sitting and pondering over the cloud that
seemed slowly to rise &om the sea, assuming definite
and undeniable appearances of land.

I knew very well what land it must be : one of a
group of islands every inch of which I had traversed
with the zeal of youthful enthusiasm ; but which of
them, was a question I almost feared to have answered.
Tet, what difference could it make to me I The land
was providentially in our course, but not on our way-
bill. If we were within gunshot of its loveliest portion,
we must needs pass on as frigidly as though it were
Charybdis, or something equally dreadftd ; and I began
to thhik it might be something of the sort, because of its
besetting temptations.

Of course there was no doubt as to the certainty of its
being land, when we went down to supper ; and at sun-

58 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

set we knew the dark spots were valleys, and the bright
ones hills. I &ncied a hundred bronze-hued feces were
turned toward us, as we seemed to twinkle away oflF in
their sunset sea like a fellen star, or something of that
sort, I thought I could almost hear the sea beating
upon the crusts of the reef in the twilight ; but perhaps
I didn't, for the land was miles away, and night hid it
presently, while the old solitude of the ocean impressed
us all as though we were again in the midst of its un-
broken, circular wastes. Tien they played whist in the
cabin, — all but me. I hung over the ship's side, resolved
to watch all night for the lights on shore, — the flickering
watch-fires in the mountam camps ; for I knew I should
see them, as we were bound to pass the island before
morning.

The night was intensely dark ; clouds muffled the
stars, and not a spark of light was visible in any direc-
tion over the waters. A shower could easily have
quenched the beacons I was seeking, and my vigil soon
became tedious ; so presently I followed the others and
turned in, rather disconsolate and disgusted.

Toward midnight the wind fell rapidly, and within
half an hour we found ourselves in a dead calm, when
the moan of the breakers was quite audible on our star-
board quarter. The Captain was nervous and watchful;
the currents in the channel were strong, and he saw, by
the variation in the compass, that the vessel was being
whirled in a great circle around a point of the island.

Fortunately it began to get light before the danger
grew imminent. At three o'clock we were within
soundings, and shortly after we plumped the anchor
into the rough coral at the bottom of a pretty little

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. S9

harbour, where, the Captain informed us, we must ride
all day and get out with the land breeze, that would pro-
bably come down at night. I rushed up in the grey
dawn, and bent my gaze upon the shore. I think I
must have turned pale, or trembled a little, or done
something sensational and appropriate, though no one
observed it; whereat I was rather glad, on the whole,
for they could not have understood it if I had done my
best to explain, — ^which I had not the least idea of doing,
however, for it was none of their affidr.

I knew that place the moment I saw it, — ^the very
spot of all I most desired to see; and I resolved, in my
secret soul, to go ashore, there and then ; amicably if I
might, forcibly if I musi

The Captain was not over-genial that morning either;
he hated detention, and was a trifle nervous about being
tied up under the lee of the land for twelve or twenfy
hours. So he growled if any one approached him all that
day, and positively refused to allow the ship's boat to be
touched, unless we drifted upon the rocks, broadside, —
which, he seemed to think, was not entirely out of the
question. I was sure there would be a canoe — ^perhaps
several — alongside by sunrise ; so I said nothing, but
\ waited in silence, determined to desert when the time
came ; and the Captain might whistle me back if he
could.

Presently the time came. We were rocking easily
on the swell, directly to the eastward of a deep valley.
The sky was ruddy; the air &esh and invigorating, but
soft as the gales of Paradise. We were in the tropics.
You would have known it with your eyes shut ; the
whole wonderful atmosphere confessed it. But, with

6o SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

your eyes open, those white birds, sailing like snow-
flakes through the immaculate blue heavens, with tail-
feathers like our pennant ; the floating gardens of the
sea, through which we had been ruthlesslj ploughing
for a couple of days back ; the gorgeous sunrises and
sunsets, — all were proofs positive of our latitude.

What a sunrise it was on that morning I Yet I stood
with my back to it, looking west ; for there I saw,
firstly, the foam on the reef — as crimson as blood —
falling over the wine-stained waves ; then it changed
as the sun ascended, like clouds of golden powder, inde-
scribably magnificent, shaken and scatterea upon the
silver snow-drifts of the coral reef, dazzling to behold,
and continually changing.

Beyond it, in the still water, was reflected a long,
narrow strip of beach; above it, green pastures and
umbrageous groves, with native huts, like great birds'-
nests, half hidden among them ; and the weird, slender,
cocoa-palms were there, — those exclamation-points in the
poetry of tropic landscape. All this lay slumbering se-
curely between high walls of verdure ; while at the
upper end, where the valley was like a niche set in the
green aad glorious mountains, two waterfalls floated
downward like smoke-columns on a heavy morning.
Angels and ministers of grace 1 do you, in your airy
perambulations, visit haunts more lovely than this ? — ^as
lovely as that undiscovered country from whose bourne
the traveller would rather not look back, premising that
the traveller were as singularly constituted as I am ;
which is, peradventure, not probable.

They knew it was morning almost as soon as we did,
though they lived a few ftirlongs fitrther west, and had

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. 6\

no notion of the immediate proximity of a strange craft,
— ^by no means rakish in her rig, however ; only a
simple merchantman, bound for Auckland from San
Francisco, but the victim of circumstances, and, in
consequence, tied to the bottom of the sea when half-
way over.

They knew it was morning. I saw them swarming
out of their grassy nests, brown, sleek-limbed, and
naked. They regarded with amazement our floating
home. The news spread, and the groves were suddenly
peopled with my dear barbarians, who hate civilization
almost as much as I do, and are certainly quite as idola-
trous and indolent as I ever aspire to be.

I turned my palms outward toward them ; I lifted up
my voice, and cried, ' Hail, my brothers 1 We hasten
with the morning ; we follow after the sun. Greetings
to you, dwellers in the West I "

Nobody heard me. I looked again. Down they came
upon the shore, wading into the sea. Then such a car-
nival as they celebrated in the shallow water was a
noveliy for some of my cabin friends; but I knew all
about it. I'd done the same thing often enough myself,
when I was young, and firee, and innocent, and savage.
I knew they were asking themselves a thousand ques-
tions as to our sudden appearance in their seas, and
would rather like to know who we were, and where we
were going, but scorned to ask us. They had once or
twice been visited by the same sort of whitish-looking
people^ and they had found those colourless &ces uncivil,
and the bleached-out skins by no means to be trusted
with those whom they considered their inferiors. They
didn't know that it is one of the Thirty-nine Articles of

62 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

Civilization to bully one's way through the world Then
I prayed that they might be moved to send out a canoe,
so that I could debark and go inland for the day. I
prayed very earnestly, and out she came, — one of their
tiny, fragile canoes, looking like a deserted chrysalis,
with the invisible wings of the spiritual, tutelary butter-
fly wafking it over the waves. In this chyrsalis dug-out
sat a tough little body, with a curly head, which I recog-
nized in a minute as belonging to a once friend and
comrade in my delightfiil exile, when I was a successful
prodigal, and wasted my substance in the most startling
and effectual manner, and enjoyed it a great deal better
than if I had kept it in the bank, as they advised me to
do. On he came, beating the sea with his broad paddle,
alternately by either side of the canoe, and regarding us
with a commendable degree of suspicion. I greeted him
in his peculiar dialect. The gift of tongues seemed sud-
denly to have descended upon me, for I found little diffi-
culty in saying everything I wanted to say, in a remark-
ably brief space of time.

"Hail, little friend!" said I; "great love to you
How is it on shore now ? "

He replied that it was decidedly nice on shore now,
and that his love for me was as much as mine for him,
and more too, and that consequently he was prepared to
conduct me thither, regardless of expense.

I went with that lovely boy on shore. The Captain
could not resist my persuasive appeals for a short leave
of absence, and so I went. Perhaps it would not have
been advisable for him to have suppressed me ; and he
made a c(.urteous virtue of necessity.

I had leave to stop till evening, unless I heard a signal

CHUMMING WITH A SA VA GE. 63

gun, upon hearing which I was to return immediately on
board, or suffer the consequences.

Now, I am free to confess, that the consequences
didn't appal me as we swung off from the vessel, where
I had been an uneasy prisoner for many days; and I
fell to chatting with Niga, my dusky friend, in a sort of
desperate joy.

Niga was a regular trump. He had more than once
piled on horseback behind me, in the sweet days when
we used to ride double, — yea, and even treble, if neces-
sary. There was usually a great deal more boy than
horse on the premises ; hence this questionable economy
in our cavalry regulations. Niga told me many things
as we drew near the reef : he talked of nearly every-
body and everything ; but of all that he told me, he
said nothing of the one I most longed to hear about.
Yet, somehow or other, I could not quite bring myself
to ask him, out and out, this question. You know,
sometimes it is hard to shape words just as you want
them shaped, and the question is never asked in conse-
quence.

The reef was growling tremendously. We were
drawing nearer to it every moment. I thought the
chances were against us ; but Niga was self-possessed,
and as he had crossed it once that morning, and in the
more dangerous direction of the two, — ^that is, against the
[ grain of the waves, — I concluded there was no special
need of my making a scene ; and in the next moment
we were poised on a terrific cataract of glittering and
rushing breakers, snatched up and held trembling in mid-
air, with the canoe half filled with water, and I perfectly
blind with spray.

64 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

It was a memorable moment in a very short voyage;
and the general verdict on board ship, where thej were
watching ns with some interest, was, that it served me
right.

When my eyes were once more firee of the water, I
found myself in the midst of the natives, who had
been waiting just inside of the reef to receive us ; and,
as they recognized me, they laid a hand on the canoe, as
many as could crowd about it, &irly lifting it out of the
water on our way to the shore, all the while wailing
at the top of their voices their mournful and desolate
wail.

It was impossible for me to decide whether that chant
of theirs was an expression of joy or sorrow; the nature
of it is precisely the same, in eidier case.

So we went on shore in our little triumphal proces-
sion, and there I was embraced in a very emphatic
manner by savages of every conceivable sex, age, and
colour. Having mutely submitted to their genuine ex-
pressions of love, I was conducted — a willing and bewil-
dered captive — along the beach, around the little point
that separates the river from the sea, and thence by the
river-bank to the house I knew so well. I believe I
looked at every dusky face in that assemblage, two or
three times over, but saw not the one I sought.

What could it mean ? Was he hunting in the moun-
tains, or fishing beyond the headland, or sick, or in
prison, that he came not to greet me ? Surely, some-
thing had befidlen him, — something serious and unusual,
— or he would have been the first to welcome me home
tobaibarisml

A strange dread clouded my mind: it increased and

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. 65

multiplied as we passed on toward the house that had
been home to me. Then^ having led me to the outer
door, the people all sat there upon the ground, and
began wailing piteouslj.

I hastily crossed the narrow outer room, lifted the
plaited curtain, and entered the inner chamber, where I
had spent my strange, wild holiday long months before.

I looked earnestly about me, while my eyes gradually
became fiuniliar with the dull light. Nothing seemed
changed. I could point at once to almost every article
in the room. It seemed but yesterday that I had stolen
away &om them in the grey dawn, and repented my
desertion too late.

I soon grew accustomed to the sombre light of the
room. I saw sitting about me, in the comers, bowed
figures, with their feces hidden in grief. There was no
longer any doubt as to the nature of their emotion. It
was grief that had stricken the household, and the grief
that death alone occasions. I counted every figure in
the room; I recognized each, the same that I had known
when I dwelt among them: he alone was absent.

I don't know what possessed me at that moment. I
felt an almost uncontrollable desire to laugh, as though
it were some tnasqu^ gotten up for my amusement.
Then I wished they would cease their masking, for I
felt too miserable to laugh. Then I was utterly at a
loss to know what to do ; so I walked to the old-
&shioned bed — our old-fashioned bed — ^in the comer,
looking just as it used to. I think the same old spider
was there still, clinging to the canopy ; the very same
old fellow, in his harlequin tights, that we used to watch,
and talk about^ and wonder what he was thinking of.

66 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

to stop SO stilly day after daj^ and week after week^
up there on the canopy. I threw myself upon the
edge of the bed, my feet resting upon the floor ; and
there I tried to think of everything but that one dread-
ful reality that would assert itself, in spite of my eflForts
to deny it.

Where was my friend? Where could he be, that
these, his friends, were so bowed with sorrow? The
question involved a revelation, already anticipated in
my mind. That revelation I dreaded as I would dread
my own deaths-sentence. But it came at last. A woman
who had been humbling herself in the dust moved toward
me from the shadow iliat half concealed her. She did
not rise to her feet ; she was half reclining on the mats
of the floor, her features veiled in the long, black hair
of her race. One hand was extended toward me, then
the other; the body followed; and so she moved, slowly
and painfully, toward the bedside.

It was his mother. I knew her intuitively. Close
to the bed she came, and crouched by me, upon the
floor. There, with one hand clasped close over mine,
the other flooded with her copious tears, and her fore-
head bowed almost to the floor, she poured forth the
measure of her woe. The moment her voice was heard,
those out of the house ceased wailing, and seemed to be
listening to the elegy of the bereaved.

Her voice was husky with grief, broken again and
again with sobs. I seemed to understand perfectly the
nature of her story, though my knowledge of the dialect
was very deficient.

The mother's soul was quickened with her pathetic
Ibeme. The frenzy of the poet inspired her lips. It

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. «7

was an epic she was chanting, celebrating the career of
her boy-hero. She told of his birth, and wonderful
childhood ; of his beautiM strength ; of his sublime
affection, and the friend it had brought him &om over
the water.

She referred frequently to our former associations,
and seemed to delight in dwelling upon them. Then
came the story of his death, — ^the saddest canto of the
melancholy whole.

How shall I ever forgive myself the selfish pleasure I
took in striving to remodel an immortal soul ? What
business had I to touch so sensitive an orgimism; sus-
ceptible of infinite impressions, but incapable, in its
prodigality, of separating and dismissing the evil, and
retaining only the good, — ^therefore fit only to increase
and develop in the suitable atmosphere with which the
Creator had surrounded it?

Why did I not foresee the climax?

I might have known that one reared in the nursery
of Nature, as free to speak and act as the very winds of
heaven to blow whither they list, could ill support the
manacles of our modern proprieties. Of what use to
him could be a knowledge of the artifices of society?
Simply a temptation and a snare I

What was the story of his fate ? That he came safely
home, rejoicing in his natural freedom; that he could
not express his delight at finding home so pleasant; that
his days were spent in telling of the wonderful things
he had seen: more sects than the gods of the South
Seas; more doubters than believers; contradictions, and
insults, and suspicions everywhere. They laughed again,
when they thought of us, and pitied us all the while*

68 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

But his exhilaration wore off, afker a time. Then
came the reaction. A restlessness; an undefined, un-
satisfied longing. Life became a burden. The seed of
dissension had fidlen in fresh and fiedlow soil: it was a
souvenir of his sojourn among us. He, the child of
Nature, must now follow out the artificial and hollow
life of the world, or die unsatisfied; for he could not
return to his original sphere of trust and contentment.
He had learned to doubt all things, as naturally as any
of us.

For days he moaned in spirit, and was troubled ;
nothing consoled him ; his soul was broken of its rest ;
he grew desperate and melancholy.

I believe he was distracted with the problem of
society, and I cannot wonder at it. One day, when
his condition had become no longer endurable, he stole
off to sea in his canoe, thinking, perhaps, that he could
reach this continent, or some other; possibly hoping
never again to meet human &ces, for he could not trust
them.

It was his heroic exit from a life that no longer in-^
terested him. Great was the astonishment of the
islanders, who looked upon him as one possessed of the
Evil Spirit, and special sacrifices were offered in his
behalf ; but the gods were inexorable ; and, after
several days upon the solitary sea, a shadow, a mote,
drifted toward the valley, — a canoe, with a fitmishing
and delirious voyager, that was presently tossed and
broken in the surges ; then, a dark body glistened for a
moment, wet with spray, and sank for ever, while the
shining coral reef was stained with the blood of the
first-bom.

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. 69

I heard it all in the desolate wail of the mother, yet
conld not weep ; my eyes burned like fire.

Little Niga came for me presently, and led me into
the great grove of AxzmaTie-trees, up the valley. He
insisted upon holding me by the hand : it was all he
could do to comfort me, and he did that with his whole
soul.

In silence we pressed on to one of the largest of the
trees. I recognized it at once. Niga and I, one day,
went thither, and I cut a name upon the soft bark of
the tree.

When we reached it we paused. Niga pointed with
his finger ; I looked. It was there yet, — a simple
name, carved in the rudest &shion. I read the letters,
which had since become an epitaph. They were
these : —

"Kana-akI, Mi. 16 yr«.»

Under them were three initials, — ^my own, — cut by the
iand of K&na^an&, after his return from America.

We sat down in the gloomy grove. " Tell me," I
said, " tell me, Niga, where has his spirit gone ? "

" He is here, now," said Niga ; " he can see us.
Perhaps, some day, we shall see him."

" You have more faith than our philosophers, for they
have reasoned themselves out of everything. Would
you like to be a philosopher, Niga ? " I asked.

Niga thought, if they were going to die, body and
soul, that he wouldn't like to be anything of the sort,
and that he had rather be a first-class savage than a
fourth-rate Christian, any day.

I interrupted him at this alarming assertion. ^^ The

TO SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

philosophers would call your faith a superstition^ Niga ;
they do not realize that there is no true &ith unmixed
widi superstition^ since fidth implies a belief in some-
thing unseen, and is, therefore, itself a superstition.
Blessed is the man who believes blindly, — call it what
you please, — ^for peace shall dwell in his soul. But,
Niga," I continued, " where is God ? "

" Here, and here, and here," said Niga, pointing me
to a grotesque carving in the sacred grove, to a monu-
ment upon the distant precipice, and to a heap of rocks
in the sea ; and the smile of recognition with which the
little votary greeted his idols was a solemn proof of his
sincerity.

"Niga," I said, "we call you and your kind heathens.
It is a harmless anathema, which cannot, in the least,
affect you personally. Ask us if we love God ! Of
course we do. Do we love Him above all things,
animate or inanimate? Undoubtedly! Undoubtedly
is easily said, and let us give ourselves credit for some
honesty. We believe that we do love God above all ;
that we have no other gods before Him ; yet, who of us
will give up wealth, home, friends, and follow Him ?
Not one I The God we love is a very vague, invisible,
forbearing essence. He can afford to be lenient with
us while we are debating whether our neighbour is
serving Him in the right fashion, or not. We'd rather
not have other gods before Bin : one is as many as
we find it convenient to serve. The lover kisses pas-
sionately a miniature. It is not, however, an image of
his Creator, nor any memorial of his Eedeemer's passion,
but only a portrait of his mistress. Do you blame us,
Niga? It is the strongest instinct of our nature to

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. 71

worship something. Man is a bom idolater, and not
one of ns is exempted by reason of any scruples under
the sun. You see it daily and hourly : each one has
his idols."

Little Niga, who sympathized deeply with me, seemed
to have gotten some knowledge of our peculiarly mixed
theories concerning God and the future state, from con-
versations overheard after the return of Kdna-an^ He
tried to console me witJi the assurance that Kdna-aniL
died a devoted and unshaken adherent to the faitJi of
his fathers.

I couldn't but feel that his blood was off my hands
when I learned this ; and I believe I s^ave Ni^^a a
regular hug in ihat moment of joy.

Then we walked here and there, through the valley,
and visited the old haunts, made memorable by many
incidents in that romantic and chivalrous life of the
8outh. Every one we met had some word to add
concerning the Pride of the Valley, dead in his glorious
yontL

Over and over, they assured me of his fideliiy to me,
his white brother, adding that Kdna-and had, more than
once, expressed the deepest regret at not having brought
me back with him.

He even meditated sending for me, in the same man-
ner that I had sent for him ; and, if he had done so, it
was his purpose to see that I was at once made familiar
with their Articles of Faith; for he anticipated a willing
convert in me, and it was the desire of his heart that I
should know that perfect trust, peculiar to his people,
and which is begotten of the brief gospel, so often
quoted out of place: namely, that "seeing is believing."

7a SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

It was a kind thoaght of his^ and I wish he had
carried it into execution, for then he might have lived.
It was his susceptible nature that had come in contact
with the great world, and received its death-wound.
^ Had I been there to help him, I would have planned
something to divert his mind until he had recovered
himself, and was willing to submit to the monotony of
life over yonder. Had he not done as much for me ?
Had he not striven, day after day, to charm me with his
barbarism, and come very near to success? I should
say he had. Dear little marlyr I was he not the only boy
I ever truly loved, — dead now in his blossoming prime I

K&na-anik I Little Niga and I sat talking of you,
down by the sea, and we wept for you at last ; for the
tears came by-and-by, when I began to fully realize the
greatness of my loss. All your youth, and beauiy, and
freshness, in destruction, and your body swallowed up
in the graves of the sea I

The meridian sun blazed overhead, but it made little
difference to us. Afternoon passed, and evening was
coming on almost unheeded ; for our thoughts were
buried with him, under the waves, and life was nothing
to us, then.

1 no longer cared to observe the lights and shadows
on the cliffs, nor the poppy nodding in the wind, nor
the seaward prospect : that was spoiled by our vessel, —

. the seclusion was broken in upon. I cared for nothing
any longer, for I missed everywhere his step, patient
and faithftd as a dog's, and his marvellous face, that
could look steadily at the sun without winking, and
deluge itself with laughter all the while, for there was
nothing hidden or corrupting in it.

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE. 73

Presenilj I retamed into the sacred groye, touching
the three letters he had carved there, and calling on his
spirit to regard me as respecting his dumb idols, which
were nothing bnt the representatives of his jealous gods,
^-dear to him as the Garden of G^thsemane, the Mount
of Olives, and the shining summits of Calvary to us.
Then down I ran to the bathing-pools, and from place
to place I wandered in a hurried and nervous tour, for
it was growing darL I saw the ship's lights flickering
over the water, while the first cool whispers of the
night-wind came down from the hills, filling me with
warnings ; in the midst of which there was a flash of
flame and a sudden, thunderous report, — enough to
awaken the dead of the valley, — ^and I turned to go, I
believe, if dear Kdna-an& had been there, as I prayed
he might be, I should have laughed at that signal, and
hastened inland to avoid discovery ; for I was sick of
the world. I might have had reason to regret it after-
ward, because friendship is not elastic, and the best of
friends cannot long submit to being bored by the best
of fellows. Perhaps it was just as it should be : I had
no time to consider the matter there. I hurried to his
mother, and she dung to me ; others came about me,
and laid hold of me : so that I feared I should be held
captive until it was too late to board the vessel. Her
sails were even then shaking in the wind ; and I heard
the faint click of the capstan tugging at the anchor-
chains.

With a quick impulse I broke away from them, and
ran to the beach, where Niga and I entered his canoe,
and slid off from the sloping sands. Down we drifted
toward the open sea, while the natives renewed their

74 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

wailing, and I was half crazed with sorrow. It is im-
possible to resist the persuasive eloquence of their
chants. Think, then, with what a troubled spirit I
heard them, as we floated on between the calm stars in
the heavens and the whirling stars in the sea.

We went out to the ship's side, and Uttle Niga was
as noisy as any of them when I pressed upon him a
practical memorial of my visit; and away he drifted
into the night, with his boyish babble pitched high and
shrill : and the Present speedily became the Past, and
grew old in a moment.

Then I looked for the last time upon that faint and
cloudy picture, and seemed almost to see the spirit of
the departed beckoning to me with waving arms and
imploring looks ; and I longed for him with the old
longing, that will never release me from my willing
bondage. I blessed him in his new life, and I rejoiced
with exceeding great joy that he was freed at last from
the tyranny of life, — released from the unsolvable
riddles of the ages. The night-wind was laden with
music, and sweet with the odours of ginger and cassia ;
the spume of the reef was pale as the milk of the cocoa-
nuts, and the blazing embers on shore glowed like old
sacrificial fires.

Then I head a voice crying out of the shadow, — an
ancient and eloquent voice, — saying: "Behold my fated
race! Our days are numbered. Long have we feasted
in the rich presence of a revealed deity. We sat in
ashes under the mute gods of Baal ; we fled before the
wrath of Moloch, the destroyer ; we were as mighty as
the four winds of heaven : but the profane hand of the
Iconoclast has desecrated our temples, and humbled

CHUMMING WITH A SAVAGE, 75

our majesty in the dust. impious breakers of idols I
why will ye put your new wines into these old bottles,
that were shaped for spring waters only, and not for
wine at all I Lo ! ye have broken them, and the wme
is wasted. Be satisfied, and depart 1 "

So that spirit of air sang the death-song of his tribe,
and the sad music of his voice rang over tie waters like
a lullaby.

Then I heard no more, and I said, " My asylum is the
great world ; my refuge is in oblivion ;" and I turned
my face seaward, never again to dream fondly of my
island home ; never again to know it as I have known
it ; never again to look upon its serene and melancholy
beauty : for tlie soul of the beloved is transmitted to the
vales of rest, and his ashes are sown in the watery fur-
rows of the deep sea I

TABOO.— A FETE-DAY IN TAHITI.

T was on one of those vagabond pilgrimages
to nowhere in particular^ such as every
stranger is bonnd to make in a strange
land, that I first stumbled upon my royal
Jester, better known in Tahiti as Taboo.

Great Jove I what a night it was I A wild ravine
fuU of banyan and pandanus trees, and of parasite
climbers, and the thousand nameless leafing and blos-
soming creatures that intermarry to such an alarming
extent in the free-loving tropics, had tempted me to
pasture there for a little while. I was wandering on
among roots and trailing branches, and under ropes upon
ropes of flowers that seemed to swing suddenly across
my path on purpose to keep me from finding too easily
the secret heart of the mountain. I felt it was right
that I should be made to realize how sacred a spot that
sanctuary of Nature was, but I fretted somewhat at the
persistency of those speechless sentinels who guarded its
outer door so faithfully. There was a waterfall within
that I had prayed to see, — one of those mysterious water-
falls that descend noiselessly from the bosom of a doud,
stealing over cushions of moss, like a ray of light in a
dream, or something else equally intangible.

TABOO.-'A FETE'DA Y IN TAHITI. 77

Yon never find this sort of waterfall in the common
way. No one can exactly point it out to you ; but you
must search for it yourself, and listen for its voice, —
and usually listen in vain, — ^till, suddenly, you come
upon it in a moment, almost as if by accident ; and its
whole quivering length glitters and glistens with jewels,
where it hangs, like a necklace, on the bosom of a great
cliff. It is the only visible chain that binds earth to
heaven ; and no wonder you gaze at it with questioning
eyes!

Well, while I was looking about me, expecting every
moment to feel the damp breath of the waterfidl upon
my forehead, night came down. Where was I? In
the midst of a pathless forest; between cliffs whose
sleek, mossy walls were so steep as to forbid even the
goat's sharp hoof. Down the hollow of the ravine,
among round, slippery rocks, and between trellises of
giant roots, tumbled a mountain torrent. No human
form visible, probably none to be looked for on that side
of the inaccessible dome of the mountain ; yet fearlessly
I toiled on, knowing that food and shelter were on every
side, and that no hand, whose clasp was as fervent as
the clasp of the vine itself, would be raised against me ;
and, thank Heaven I outsiders were scarce.

In the midst of the narrowing chasm, with the night
tihickening, and the wood growing more and more ob-
jectionable, I heard a sound as of stumbling feet before
me. My first thought was of colour ! I would scarcely
trust a white man in that predicament. What well-
disposed White would be prowling, like a wild animal,
alone in a forest at night? It occurred to me that I
was white, or had passed as such ; but I know and have

78 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

always known that, inwardly, I am purple-blooded, and
snpple-limbed, and invisibly tattooed after the manner
of my lost tribe I I was startled at the sonnd, and
slackened my pace to listen : the footsteps paused with
mine. I plunged forward, accusing the echoes of play-
ing me false. Again the mysterious one rushed awk-
wardly on before me, with footfalls that were not like
mine, nor like any that I could trace: they were neither
brute nor human, but fell dumsily among the roots and
stones, out of time with me ; therefore, no echo, and
beyond m^ reckoning entirely.

At this hour the moon, of a favourable size, looked
over the diff, flooding the chasm with her soft light. I
rejoiced at it, and hoped for a revelation of the Un-
known, whose tottering steps had mocked mine for half
an hour.

Here we were in a forest of bread-fruit trees.
Scarcely a ray of light penetrated their thick-woven
branches ; but, against the fiiint light of the open dis-
tance, I marked the weird outline of one who might
once have been human, but was no longer a tolerable
image of his Maker. The figure was like the opposite
halves of two men bodily joined together in an amateur
attempt at himian grafting. The trunk was curved the
wrong way; a great shoulder bullied a little shoulder,
and kept it decidedly under; a long leg walked right
around a short leg that was perpetually sitting itself
down on invisible seats, or swinging itself for the mere
pleasure of it. One arm clutched a ten-foot bamboo
about three inches in diameter, and wielded it as though
it were a bishop's crook, and something to be proud of;
the other arm — ^it must have belonged to a child when it

TABOO,— A FETE'DA Y IN TAHITI. 79

stopped growing — ^was hooked up over one ear, looking
as though it had been badly wired by some medical stu-
dent, and was worn as a lasting reproach to him. A
shaggy head was set on the down-slope of the big
shoulder, and seemed to be continually looking over the
httle shoulder and under the little arm for some one
always expected, but who was very long in coming*

Upon this startling discovery I turned to flee, but the
figure immediately followed. It was evidently too late
to escape an interview, and, taking heart, I walked
toward it, when, to my amazement, it hastily staggered
away from me, looking always over its shoulder, quicken-
ing its pace with mine, slackening ^ts speed with me,
and keeping, or seeking to keep, within a certain dis-
tance of me all the while. My curiosity was excited,
and, as I saw it bore me no iU-will, I made a quick
plunge forward, hoping to capture it. With an eper-
getic effort it strove to escape me ; but, with the head
turned the wrong way, it stumbled blindly into a bit of
jungle, where it lay whining piteously. I assisted it to
its feet, with what caution and tenderness I could, and, '
finding it still wary, walked on slowly, leading the way
to the edge of the grove, where the moonlight was
almost as radiant as the dawn. It followed me like a
dog, and was evidently grateful for my company. I
walked slowly that it might not stumble, and, as we
emerged from the shadow of the bread-fruits, I manoeu-
vered so as to bring its face toward the moonlight, and
I saw — ^a hideous visage, with all its features sliding to
one comer ; and nothing but the two soft, sleepy-looking
eyes saved me from yielding to the disgust that its whole
presence awakened. As it was, I involuntarily started

So SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

back with a shudder, and a slight exclamation that at-
tracted its attention. '^ Taboo I Taboo I " moaned th^
poor creature^ half in introduction; half in apology and
explanation.

He was well named the ^^ forbidden one '^ set apart
from all his fellows ; incapable of utterance ; maimed in
body; an outcast among his own people; homeless, yet
at home everywhere ; friendless, though welcomed by
all for his entertaining and ludicrous simplicity; feedings
like the birds, from Nature's lap, and, like the birds, left
to the winds and waters for companionship.

Somehow I felt that Taboo could lead me at once to
the waterfisdl ; and I tried to seek out the small door to
his brain, and impress him with my anxiety to reach the
place. 0, what darkness was there, and what doubts
and fears seemed to doud the hidden portals of his soul I
He made an uncouth noise for-me. Perhaps he meant
it as music : it was frightful to hear it up there in the
mountain solitudes. He got me fruits and a little water
in the palm of his hand, which he expected me to drink
with a relish. He lay down at my feet in a broken
heap of limbs, crooning complacently. He was playful
and thoughtful alternately ; at least, he lost himself in
long sQences from time to time, while his eyes glowed
with a deep inward light, that almost made me hope to
startle his reason from its dreadful sleep ; but a single
word broke the spell, and set him to laughing as though
he would go all to pieces ; and his joy was more pitiftd
than his sorrow.

In one of his sQent moods he suddenly staggered to
his feet, and shambled into a narrow trail to one side of
the gorge. I wondered at his unexpected impulse, and

TABOO,— A FETE'DA Y IN TAHITI. 8l

feared that he had grown tired of me already, preferring
the society of his feathered comrades, a few of whom
sounded their challenge-note, that soared like silver
arrows in the profound stillness of the ravine. It seemed
not, however : in a few moments he returned, and sig-
nalled me with his expressive grunt, and I followed him.
Through thickets of fern, arching high over our heads,
down spongy dells, and over rims of rock jutting from
the base of the mountain, Taboo and I clambered Iq the
warm moonlight. Anon we came upon a barricade of
bamboos, growing like pickets set one against another.
I know not how broad the thicket might have been, —
possibly as broad as the ravine itself, — ^but into the thick
of it Taboo edged himself ; and close upon his heels I
followed. In a few moments we had crushed our way
through the midst of the bamboos, that clashed together
after us so that a bird might not have tracked us, and
lo I a crystal pool in the heart of a wonderftil garden ;
and to it, silently, from heaven itself descended that
mysterious water&ll, whose actual existence I had seri-
ously begun to question. It lay close against the breast
of tie mountain, strangely pale in the full glow of the
moon, while, like a vein of fire, it seemed to throb from
end to end ; or like a shining thread with great pearls
slipping slowly down its ftdl length, taking the &int
hues of the rainbow as they fell, playing at prisms, until
my eyes, weary of watching, closed of their own accord.
I sank down by Taboo, who was sleeping soundly in the
hollow of a great tree ; and the one cover for both of us
was the impenetrable shadow that is never lifted from
that silent sanctuary of the Most High.

The sky was as saffron when we woke from our out-

6

8i SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

of-door deep, and the whole atmosphere was less poetical
and impressive than on the night previous. Stranger
than all else, there was no visible trace of the mysterious
water&ll. I even began to question my own senses, and
thought it possible that I had been dreaming. Yet there
sat Taboo in his frightful imperfection, as happy and in-
different as possible. Of course he could tell me nothing
of the magical waters. He had doubtless already for-
gotten the episode of the hour previous. He lived for
the solitary moment, and his mind seemed unable to
grasp the secrets of ten seconds on either side of his
narrow present. In fact, he was playing with a splendid
lizard when I returned from my brief and fruitless re-
connoissance; and as I came up he wondered at me, as he
never ceased to wonder, with fresh bewilderment, when-
ever I came back to him, after never so brief an absence.

I soon learned to play upon Taboo's one stop; to
point a finger at him, and bore imaginary auger-holes
right into him anywhere; for he always winced and
whined, like a very baby, and yielded at once to my
pantomimic suggestion. But what a wreck was here 1
A delicate instrument, full of rifts and breakages, with
that single key readily answerable to the slightest touch
of my will. I have often wished that it had been a
note more deep, profound, or sympathetic. It was
simply merry and shrill, and incapable of any modulation
whatever. Point a finger at him, make a few coils in
the air that grow to a focus as they draw nearer to him,
and he would run over with uncontrollable jollity that
was at times a little painM in its boi terousness.

I knew well enough that I had sucked the honey
from that particular cell in the mountain^ and ihat I

TABOO.—A FETE'DA Y IN TAHITI. 83

might as well resume my pilgrimage. There was to be
a F^ NapoUon in Papeete. We hadn't heard, up to
that hour, of the wreck of the great Empire, and, being
in a loyal French colony, it behoved us to have the
very best time possible. Said I to myself, " Taboo will
find sufficient food for merriment in our mode oifdting
an Emperor; therefore Taboo shall go with me to town
and enjoy himself." I suggested an immediate adjourn-
ment to Papeete with the tip of my forefinger, whereat
Taboo doubled up, as usual, and, in his own fashion,
implored me to stop being so funny. We at once
started; returning through the bamboo-brakes, fording
the stream in some awkward way, and slowly working
our passage back to town.

The Tahitians have but one annual holiday. As this,
however, is seventy-two hours in length, while every-
thing relating to it is broad in proportion, it is about as
much as they can conscientiously ask for.

Taboo and I entered the town on the eve of the first
day, together with multitudes from the neighbouring
districts, flocking thither in their best clothes. The
lovely bay of Papeete was covered with fleets of canoes,
hailing firom all the seaside villages on the island,
and many of them from Moorea, and islands even more
distant. No sea is too broad to be compassed by an
ambitious Kanack, who scents a festival from afar.

Along the crescent shores of the bay, the canoes were
heaped, tier upon tier. It was as though a whole South
Sea navy had been stranded, for the town was crowded
with canoe-boys and all manner of natives, in gala dress.
The incessant rolling of drums, the piping of bamboo-
flutes, and the choruses of wandering singers began

84 SUMMER CRUlSmG IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

early in the dawn of iihe 14th August, and were expected
to continue, uninterruptedly, to the evening of the 16tL
Taboo regarded it all with singular indifference. Every-
body seemed to know him, and to take particular delight
in greeting him. His sleepy disregard of them ^
considered extremely laughable, and they went their
way roaring with merriment, that contrasted strongly
with the grave, listless face of the simple one, who was
apparently oblivious of everything.

The morning after we appeared in Papeete was Sun-
day, according to the calendar. The little cathedral,
with banana-leaves rustling in the open windows, was
thronged with worshippers of all colours, doubly devout
in the excessive heat. Various choirs relieved one
another during Mass, and some diminutive fellows,
under ten years of age, chanted Latin hymns in a pleas-
ingly plaintive voice, led by a friar in long clothes and
a choker. Taboo crouched by the open door during
service, raking the gravel-walk with his crooked fingers,
and hitching about with indefiitigable industry. After
the last gospel, we all went into the middle of the
street — for there were no sidewalks — and got our boots
very dusty. Little knots of friends seemed to sit down
in the way wherever they pleased, and to talk as long
as they liked; while everybody else accommodatingly
turned out for them, or paused, and listened to the
conversation, without embarrassment on either side-
Liquor was imbibed on the sly; some eyes were begin-
ning to swim perceptibly, and some tongues to wag
faster and looser than ever. The Admiral's flag-ship
was one pyramid of gorgeous bunting, and his band
delighted a great audience, gathered upon the shore^

TABOO.—A FETE'DA Y IN TAHITI. 85

with a matinie gratis. At sunset the imperial bat-
teries belched their sulphurous thunder, that came as
near to breaking the Sabbath as possible. In the evening
more music, up at the Governor's garden, — ^waltzes,
polkas, and quadrilles, so brilliantly executed that the
listeners were half mad with delight; and you couldn't
for the life of you tell what day it had been, nor what
night it was, but Sunday was positively set down against
it in the calendar. At ten p.m. a signal-gun says
"'Grood-night" to the citizens of Papeete, and it behoves
all those who are dark-skinned to retire instantly, on
pain of arrest and a straw-heap in the calaboose.

In the midst of our Sunday festival, while yet the
streets were hilarious, slap-bang went this impudent
piece of ordnance, and at once the crowd began to dis-
perse in the greatest confusion. Taboo, who had been
an inanimate spectator during the day's diversions,
seemed to comprehend the necessity of hasty flight to
some quarter or other; and, with a confusion of ideas
peculiar to him, he began careering in great circles
through the swaying multitude, and continued to revolve
around an uncertain centre, until I seized him and
sought to pilot him to some convenient place of shelter.
I thought of the great market, that, like those ancient
cities of refuge, was always open to the benighted wan-
derer; and thither we hastened. A lofty roof, covering
a good part of a block, kept the rain from a vast enclo-
sure, stored with stalls, tables, and benches. It was
simply shelter of the barest kind, but sufiicient for all
needs in that charitable climate. There was a buzzing
of turbulent throngs as we edged our way toward the
centre of the market-place ; you would think that all

86 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEA.

the bees of Tahiti were swarming in nnison, from the
noise thereof. The commotion was long in quieting. It
had to subside like the sea at flood-tide. Every Mttle while
a brace o{ gendarTnes strutted past the premises, feeling
mighty fine in their broad white pants, like a ship with
studding-sails out, and with those comical bobtails
sprouting out of the small of their backs. I know that
Taboo and I, having laid ourselves on somebody's
counter, listened and nudged each other for two or
three hours, and that it began to feel like morning
before there was sleep enough to go entirely around the
establishment.

The man who is the first to wake in Papeete lights
his lamp and goes to market. As soon as he makes his
untimely appearance, the community begins to stir ; a
great clatter of drowsy voices and dozens of yawns are the
symptoms of retumingday ; and in ten minutes the market
is declared open, though it is still deep and tranquil
starlight overhead, with not a trace of dawn as yet visible.

When the market opens before 3 a.m. — and the hour
happens to be the blackest of the four-and-twenty — ^it is
highly inconvenient for any foreigner and his royal
jester who may be surreptitiously passing the night
upon one of the fruit counters, but there is no help for
them : sleepy heads give way to fresh-gathered bread-
fruits and nets of fragrant oranges ; bananas are swung
up within tempting reach of everybody ; all sorts of
natives come in from the four quarters of liie Papeetean
globe, with back-loads of miscellaneous viands, a mat
under one arm, and a flaming torch in hand. Rows
upon rows of girls sell fruits and flowers to the highest
bidder ; withering old women haggle over the prices

TABOO.^A FETE-DA Y IN TAHITI. S7

of iih^ perfumed and juicy wares ; solitary men oflFer
iheir solitary strings of fish for a real each, and reftise
to be beaten down by any wretch of a fellow who
dares to insinuate that the fish are a trifle too scaly;
boys sit demure over their meagre array of temptations
in the shape of six tomatoes, three eggs, a dozen or so
of guayas, and one cucumber. These youngsters usually
sit with a passionless countenance that forbids any hope
of a bargain at reduced prices, and they pass an hour or
two with scarce a suggestion of custom ; but it is sud-
denly discovered that they have something desirable,
and a dozen purchasers begin quarrelling for it, during
which time some one else quietly makes his purchase
from one comer of ti.e V/ mat ; andf having
dosed out his stock in less than ten minutes, he
quietly pockets his reala^ and departs without having
uttered a syllable.

Taboo and I went from one mat to another, eyeing the
good things for breakfast. I offered him the best that
the market afforded ; and I could easily do so, for in no
land is the article cheaper or better. Taboo, having
made the circuit of the entire establishment, upon ma-
ture deliberation concluded to take nothing. At every
point he was greeted uproariously by the noisy and
good-natured people, who were willing to give him any-
thing he might choose to take. They, probably, felt
that it was worth more than the price of the article to
see the sublime scorn on the poor fellow's face as he de-
clined their limes, feiSj mangoes, or whatever delicious
morsel it might have been. As for me, I couldn't resist
those seductions. I made my little purchases and with-
drew to the sea^de^ where I could break my &st by sun-

88 . SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

rise, and enjoy comparative quiet. Taboo griiined in
the market-place till he was weary of the applause
showered upon him by the ungodly, who made light of
his irreparable misfortune and took pleasure in his
misery. He hunted me up, or, rather, stumbled upon
me again, and stayed by me, amusing himself with pelt-
ing the fish that sported, like sunbeams and prisms, in
the sea dose at our feet.

It was fite-da,y in Tahiti. I sat, at sunrise, by the
tideless margin of a South Sea lagoon, bristiing witii
coral and glittering with gem-like fish. In either hand
I held a mango and banana. I raised the mango to my
lips. What a marvel it was 1 A plump vegetable egg,
full of delusion, and stuffed with a homy seed nearly as
large as itself. It had a fragrance as of oils and syrups;
it purged sweet-scented and resinous gmns. Its hide
was, perhaps, too tough for convenience, but its inner
lusciousness tempted me to persevere in the consump-
tion of it. With much difficuliy I broke the skin.
Honey of Hymettus 1 It seemed as though the very
marrow of the tropics were about to intoxicate my
palate. Alas, for tiie hopes of youthftd inexperience I
What was so feir to see proved but a meagre mouthful
of saturated wool; that colossal and homy seed asserted
itself everywhere. The more I strove to handle it with
caution, the more slippery and unmanageable it became.
It shot into my beard, it leaped lightiy into my shiri-
bosom, and skated over the palms of both hands. Small
rivulets of liquor trickled down my sleeves, making dis-
agreeable puddles at both elbows. My fingers were
webbed together in a glutinous mass. My whole front
was in a shocking state of smear. My teeth grew weary

TABOO,— A FETE'DA V IN TAHITI. 89

of combing out the beguiling threads of the fruit The
thing seemed^ to my imagination, a small, flat head^
covered with short, blond hair, profusely saturated with
some sweet sort of ointment, that I had despaired of
feasting on; and I was not sorry when the slippery stone
sprang out of my grasp, and peppered itself with sea-sand.

I knew that there still remained to me a morsel that
was of itself fit food for the gods. I poised aloft, with
satisfaction, the rare-ripe banana, beautiftd to the eye
as a nugget of purest gold. The pliant petals were
pouting at the top of the fruit. I readily turned them
back, forming a unique and convenient gilded salver
for the column of flaky manna that was, as yet, swathed
in lace-like folds. These gauzy ribbons fell from it
almost of their own accord, and hung in fleecy festoons
about it.

Here was a repast of singularly appropriate mould,
being about the size of a respectable mouth, and con-
taining just enough mouthftds to temporarily satisfy the
appetite. Not a morsel of it but was full of mellowness,
and sweet flavour, and fragrance. Not an atom of it
was wasted ; for, no sooner had I thrown aside the
cool, clean, flesh-like case, than it was made way with
by a fowl, that had, no doubt, been patiently awaiting
that abundant feast.

Mangoes and bananas I Their very names smack of
shady gardens, that know no harsher premonition of
death than the indolent and natural decay of all things.
The nostril is excited with the thought of them \ the
palate grows moist and yearns for them ; and the soul
feasts itself, for a moment, with a memory of mangoes
and bananas past, whose perfection was but another

^ SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

proof of mimortaUiy, since it is impossible ever to forget
them individually. Mangoes and bananas I the prime
fayonrites at Nature's most bountiful board; the realiza-
tion of a dream of the orchards of the Hesperides ; alike
excellent^ yet so vastly dissimilar in their excellences,
it seems almost incredible that the same beneficent Pro-
vidence can have created the two fruits 1

It was the memorable 15th of August, 1870 ; but I
have reason to believe that the bananas were no better
on that particular occasion than almost always in their
.own latitude. The 15th of August, — ^where was the
Emperor then? I forget ; I know that we rejoiced in
the blissful confidence that we were to have a grand
time at all hazards. There were guns at sunrise from
ship and shore ; a grand national procession of French
and Tahitians to High Mass at 10.30 ; guns — twenty-
one of them — ^together with the ringing of bells, and a
salute of flags, at the elevation of the Host, so that you
would have known the supreme moment had you been
miles away. Then came a sumptuous public breakfast
for the Frenchmen ; and, for the natives, games of
several sorts.

Taboo and I, having properly observed the more
Aolemn ceremonials of the day, gave ourselves up to the
full enjoyment of these latter diversions. There was a
greased pole, with shining cups 5 and flowing prints,
both useful and ornamental, hung at the top of it.
Several naked and superbly built fellows shinned up it
with infinite difficulty, and were so fatigued when they
got there, they were only too willing to clutch the first
article within reach, which was, of course, the least
desirable, and scarcely worth the trouble of getting. O,

" * TABOd.^A PETE-bAV m TAHITI *!

such magnifioent grouping at the foot of the pole, as the
athletes shouldered one another in a sort of co-operative
experiment at getting up sooner ; such struggles to rise
a little above the heads of the impatient climbers beneath
as made the aspiring Kanack quite pale — ^that is, green-
ish yellow ; such losing of grips, and fainting of hearts,
and slidings back to earth in the midst of taunts and
jeers, but all in the best of humours and the hottest of
suns ! such novelties as these were a very great delight
to Taboo and myself. He, however, didn't deign to
laugh heartily : he merely smiled in a superior manner
that seemed to imply that he knew of something that
was twice as much fun and not half the trouble, but he
didn't choose to disclose it. He nearly always seemed
to know as much as any ten of us ; and it was like an
assumption of innocence, that queer, vacant expression
of his face. I'm not sure that he was not possessed of
some rare instinct beyond our comprehension, which
was to him an abundant compensation for the fragmen-
tary body he was obliged to trundle al out.

Early in the afternoon, there were fresh arrivals in
the bay : two mammoth double war-canoes, of fifty
paddles each, came in from a remote sea-district ; they
were the very sort of water-monsters that went out to
greet my illustrious predecessor. Captain Cook, nearly
a century ago. Taboo and I were only too glad to sit
meekly among the ten thousand spectators that black-
ened the great sweep of the shore, while these savages
matched their prowess. With one vigorous plunge of
the paddles the canoes sprang from the beach into the
watery arena. How strange they looked 1 Long, low
sides, scarce eight inches above water, and stained like

92 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

fish-scales ; big, yawning jaws in their snakelike heads,
and the tail of a dragon in their wakes ; every man of
the hundred stripped to the skin and bareheaded ; their
brawny bodies glistening in the son as though they had
been oiled, while, with mechanical accuracy, the crews
beat the water with their paddles, and chanted their
guttural chants, with the sea ^shing and foaming
under them. The race was a tie ; perhaps it was fortu-
nate that it proved so. I fear if one crew had beaten
the other crew the breadth of a paddle, that other would
have lain to and eaten that one right under our very
eyes. They had their songs of triumph, both sounding
the chorus, during which they drummed with their
paddles on the sides of their canoes, till the frail things
shivered and groaned in genuine misery. Then they
renewed the race, because they couldn't possibly be still
for a moment ; and they looked like a brace of masto-
don centipedes trying to get out of the water, with
death hissing in their throats.

The evening of the great day was drawing to a close.
Taboo and I again went out into the narrow, green
lanes of Papeete, seeking what we might devour with
all our eyes and ears. Tliey were very charming, those
long arbours of densely leaved trees, with little tropical
vignettes set in the farther end of them. It was almost
like getting a squint through the wrong end of a tele-
scope, pointed toward some fairy-land or other. As it
grew dark, a thousand ready hands began illuminating
the avenues that lead to the Governor's house. Up and
down its deep verandah swung ropes of lanterns; and as
the guards at the garden-gate presented arms at the
approach of the Admiral, or some distinguished and

TABOO.— A FETE'DA Y IN TAHITI. 93

decorated foreigner, the strains of Strauss, deliciously
played, filled the illuminated grove with an air of
romance that was very Oriental in its mellowness, and
quickened every foot that was so happy as to touch the
soil of Tahiti in so fortunate an hour. On every part
of tte public lawns the revels were conducted after the
native fashion. Bands of singers and dancers sang and
danced in the streets, and were frequently rewarded
with liberal potations. Taboo looked on as amiably as
usual, and for some time as passively also; but there
was something intoxicating in the air, and it began to
have a visible efiect upon him. It was not long before
he strove to emulate the singers. St. Cecilia I what a
song was his! I could scarcely endure to hear that
royal jester striving to tune his inharmonious voice to
the glib though monotonous Tahitian madrigals. I
walked away by myself, or rather went into another
part of the village, and sought a change of scene; for
there was no seclusion to be hoped for on a/el^e-night.

From the Governor's halls came the entrancing har-
mony of flutes and harps; from every lane and alley the
piping of nose-fifes and the droning of nasal chorals;
from the sea rolled in the deep, hoarse booming of the
reef, the rhythmical plash of oars, or the clear, prolonged
cry of some one in the watery distance hailing some one
close at hand. Even so savage and picturesque a spec-
tacle as this gre^' wearisome after a time, and I turned
my steps toward a place of shelter, and suggested to
myself sleep.

In one lane was a throng of natives, wilder in their
demonstrations of joy than all the others. My curiosity
was excited, and I hastened to join them. Having with

94 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

some difficulty wedged my way into the front row of
spectators, I beheld the subject of their riotous applause.
In the centre of a small ring was an ungainly figure,
T\Tithing in grotesque contortions; tom-toms were being
beaten with diabolical energy and wildness; flutes and
shrill voices were chiming in rapid and bewildering
chromatics; the audience — ^ihe half-crazed and utterly
inhuman audience — ^gloated over the shocking spectacle
with devilish delight. In one moment I comprehended
all : Taboo, overcome by the general and unusual
excitement, had succumbed to its depraving influenoes;
and, unable longer to control himself, he was broadly
burlesquing, in his helplessness, one of the national
dances. Music had at last reached his impenetrable
soul, awakened his long-slumbering sympathies, and
found him her willing slave. A piiy that some diviner
strain had not first led him captive, that he might have
been spared this disgrace I

I saw his unhappy body ambling to the shame of all.
I saw those pitiful, unshapen shoulders undulating in
vain attempts at passional expression; the helpless arm
waving at every movement of the body, while the
withered hand spun like a whirligig above his ears; his
eyes, having lost their accustomed mild light, stared
distractedly about, seeking rescue and protection, as I
thought. In a few moments I attracted his notice,
though he seemed but partly to recognize me. There
was his usual uncertain recognition grown more doubt-
ful, — nay, even hopeless, — ^as his face betrayed. Again
I caught his eye: I felt that but one course was left
me, and at once I aimed my finger at him. He winced
in his deliriouB dance. I onled it round and round,

TABOO.— A FETE-DA Y IN TAHITI. 95

weaving airy cirde wiiliin circle; quicker and quicker
I wove my spell, and at last shot the whole hand at him,
as though I would run him througL He doubled, like
one struck with a fatal blow, and went to the ground
all of a senseless heap. There was a disturbance in the
audience. Some of them thought I had bewitched Taboo;
and it behoved me to go at once, rather than seek to
make explanation of the singular result of my presence
there. I went, and spent a dull night, accusing myself
of being the possible spiritual murderer of Taboo. I had
no business to bring him to the metropolis at that
unfortunate season ; I had no right to leave him with
his traducers: and that was the whole statement of the
case.

The last day of the fete was, of course, less joyous to
me. A score of nameless nags were to be ridden by
light-weights in breech-cloths ; and I sought consolation
in the prospect of seeing some bewitching horsemanship.
The track, in use but once every twelvemonth, and
yielding annually a young orchard of guava trees, pre-
sented to the astonished gaze of the foreign sporting
gentleman who haj^ened to be on the ground — ii^
indeed, there was such an one present — o. half-mile
course, with numerous stones and hollows reUeving its
surface, while the rope that enclosed it kept giving way
every few moments, letting in a mixed multitude among
^ the half-broken horses.

The Queen was present at the races, — Pomare, whose
life has been one long, sorrowful romance ; the Admiral
was also there; and many a petty officer, with abundant
gilt and tinsel. At a signal from the trumpeter the
horses were entered unannounced, and everybody betted

96 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

wfldly. One little African jockey, mounted upon the
cleverest piece of flesh and blood in the field, called for
the larger stakes; and he would certainly have won, but
for an unavoidable accident : the little African was
pressing in on the home-stretch, and everything looked
lovely for the winning mare, when, unluckily, she put
her nigh leg in a crab hole, and snapped her shin-bone
square off. The undaunted little African tried his best
to finish the heat on his own responsibility, and went off
into the air in fine style, but missed his calculation, and
burrowed about three lengths from the goal. His neck
was driven in nearly up to the ears, and the mare had
to be shot ; but the races went mercilessly on until a
tremendous thunder-storm flooded the track and washed
the population back to town. Dance after dance con-
sumed the afternoon hours ; and song upon song, eter-
nally reiterated, finally failed to create any special
enthusiasm.

I saw no further traces of Taboo. Again and again
I followed knots of the curious into the larger native
houses, where the lascivious dances were given with the
utmost abandon; thither, I suspected, Taboo would
most likely be impelled, for the music was wilder and
the applause more boisterous and unrestrained.

The evening of the last day of the /ete was darken-
ing ; most people were growing a little weary of the
long-drawn festivities; many had succumbed to their
fatigue, and slept by the wayside, or, it may be, they
had known too well the nature of the Tahitian juices,
Buch as no man may drink and not fall.

The palace of Pomare — a great, hollow, incomplete
ghell, whose windows have never been glazed, and whose

TABOO,— A FETE-DA Y IN TAHITI, 97

doors have never been hung — ^was the scene of the con-
cluding ceremonials of the season. The long verandahs
were thickly hung with numberless paper lanterns,
swinging continually in the soft night winds that stole
down from the starlit slopes of Fautahua ; the broad
lawns in front of the palace were blocked out in squares,
like the map of a liliputian ciiy. Each one of these
plats was set apart for a band of singers, and there were
as many bands as districts in Tahiti and Moorea, toge-
ther with delegations from islands more remote. Soon
the choruses began to assemble. Choirs of fifty voices
each, male and female, led by tight-headed drums and
screaming fifes, drew towards the palace gardens, and
were formally admitted by the proper authorities, who
were very much swollen with the pomp of office, and,
perhaps, a little sprinkle of the exhilarating accompa-
niments of the season. One after another the white-
robed processions approached — each fresh arrival looking
more like the chorus in " Norma " than the last, though
it then seemed impossible that any Druid could presume
to appear more gracefully ghostlike. Each singer wore
a plume of cocoa leaves, whose feathers were more lovely
than the downy wands of the ostrich. They were made
of knots of long, slender ribbons, softer than satin, veined
like clouded silver, as transparent as the clearest isin-
glass, and as delicate as the airiest gauze.

Out of the core of the palm tree, in the midst of its
rich, dark mass of foliage, springs a tuft of leaves as
tender as the first sprouts of a lily bulb. These budding
leaves are carefully removed, split edgewise, and the
enamelled sheets laid open to the sun ; then, with the
thumb-nail, passed skilftdly over the inner surface, a

98 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

filmy membrane is separated, and spread in the air to
dry. A single tree yields but a small cluster of these
pale, doud-like leaves, scarcely a handful in all, yet the
tree withers when they pluck the heart of it. It is the
very soul of the southern palm, with every life spiritual-
ized, and looking vapoury as tangible moonlight.

The leader of the concert having challenged the
choruses from the verandah of the palace, at once tweniy
choirs struck into their particular anthem with the ut-
most zeal. A discord about six acres in extent was the
result. It seemed as though each choir was seeking
whom it might drown out with superior vocal compass
and volume. With much difficulty the several bands of
singers were persuaded to await their turn for a solo
effort that might be listened to with no small degree of
pleasure. From time to time, during the entire evening,
some obstreperous chorus would break loose, spite of
every precaution ; and it had always to sing itself out
before order could be restored. Taboo would have tho-
roughly enjoyed these two thousand singers, eadb singing
his or her favourite roundelay, independent of all laws
of time and melody. He might have been there, as it
was, offering his inharmonious chant with the mob of
contestants.

By the time the series of prize-songs had been sung,
the sky grew cloudy, and the torches began to flicker in
the increasing wind ; a few great drops of rain spat
down in the midst of the singers, and the reef moaned
loudly, like the baying of signal guns. It was ominous
of coming storms. At the climax of a choral revolution,
in which every man's voice seemed raised against his
neighbour's^ a roar as of approaching armies was heard

TABOO.-^A FETE'DA Y IN TAHITI. 99

mingled with the accompanying crash of artillery. A
sudden puff of wind extinguished the major part of tiie
torches, and wrecked many of the lanterns in the palace
porch. It was simply a tropical shower in all its magnir
ficenoe ; but it was enough 1 The fite concluded then
and there in the promptest manner. The narrow streets
of Papeete were clogged with retreating hosts, who con-
tinually shouted a sort of general adieu to everybody, as
they gathered tJieir skirts about them, and, with fl^oes
in hand, turned their bare feet homeward.

Since the end had at last come, and I had no further
claims upon the people, nor the people upon me,— if,
indeed, either of us were ever anything in particular to
one another, — I drifted with the majoriiy, and soon
found myself in the suburban wilderness that girdles
the small capital of the queendom. I wandered on till
the noise of the revellers grew more and more indistinct.
They were scattering themselves over the length and
breadth of the island, carrying their songs with them.
Now and then a fresh gust of wind bore down to me an
echo of a refrain that had grown familiar during the
days of the f^e, and will not soon be forgotten ; but the
past was rapidly fading, and the necessities of the future
began to present themselves with unusual boldness.
Instinctively I turned into the winding trail that once
before had led me toward that mysterious mountain
sacristy, over whose font fell the spiritual and dream-
like rivulet whose baptismal virtues Taboo and I had
sought together. I felt certain that I could find it
Avithout guidance ; for the broken clouds let slip such
floods of moonlight as made day of darkness, and ren-
dered the smallest landmark easily distiHguishable.

100 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

I paused for rest in the bread-fruit grove where first I
met with my weird companion. Presently I resumed
my pilgrimage, wending my way toward the slender
path that led through fern, forest, and bamboo-jungle,
to the crystal lake and waterfall. In vain I sought it ;
the slightest traces of the trail seemed obliterated. I
wandered up and down the winding w^y, till I was in
despair of finding the sUghtest due to the mystery. I
sat down and thought how a slight accident of forgetful-
ness was lending a sense of enchantment to the whole
valley, when I heard a stumbling step, too marked to
be soon forgotten. I crept into a shadow, and awaited
the approach of the solitary wanderer. How he tottered
as he drew near I He seemed to have lost part of his
small skill since I last saw him. He was laughing
quietly to himself while he journeyed : perhaps some
memory of the fUe still pleased him. He passed me,
unconscious of my presence. I ran cautiously, and fol-
lowed him at a safe distance. We threaded the old
path, by stream and diff and brake, and, after a little,
reached the secluded and silent borders of the lake.
Once or twice he had heard me as I brushed past the
bamboos or a twig snapped under foot, but those forest-
sounds scarcely disconcerted him ; he was too well used
to them. He paused at the margin of the lake, stooped
awkwardly and drank of it, went a little to one side
where an outlet fed the torrent we had forded some dis-
tance down the valley, and there he bathed. Having
started once or twice, as though with some remembered
and definite purpose, he paused a moment or two, looked
about him helplessly, and returned to the foot of the great
tree where we slept the first night of our acquaintance.

*

TABOO.^A FETE'DA Y IN TAHITI. loi

There was a faint suggestion of the fall across the
sombre breast of the cliff opposite, but whether it were
real or a delusion, I could scarcely determine. Taboo
was soon asleep among the roots of the banyan ; and I,
weary of seeking some revelation of the island mys-
teries, lay down near him, and gradually sank into un-
consciousness. Once in the night I awoke : the clouds
had blown over, and the moon was more resplendent
than I ever remember to have seen it. Out on the
mossy rim of the lake stood Taboo, gazing wistfully
upon the mountains. Instinctively my eyes followed
his, and there I beheld the waterfall in all its glory,
leaping, like a ray of light, from the bosom of the sky.
I could scarcely determine whether or no it really fell
into the lake, for the foliage about its shores was too
proftise. It flashed like handfuls of diamond-dust
thrown into the light, and descended as noiselessly and
airily as vapour.

The clouds soon gathered again. I slept, overcome
with weariness; and when I awoke at dawn. Taboo was
missing, as well as all traces of the fall. This, however,
scarcely surprised me, for I had grown to look upon it
as some lunar effect that came and went with the in- ^
creasing or decreasing splendour of the moon ; or it
might have been the shor<>-lived offspring of the showers
that sweep over the island at uncertain intervals. It
was probably the only dramatic result to be looked for
in the career of Taboo. You never can depend upon
one of those veering minds, whose north-star has burned
out in oblivion. I believe it was his destiny to disappear
with that rainbow, and, perhaps, return with it when the
fall should noiselessly steal down the mountain once more.

lot SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

He may have had an object in secreting himself for a
season; perhaps he was renewing his youthful innocence
in some more solitary spot He may have gone apart to
laugh by the hour at the folly of those foreigners who
fiU a (Hsgraced emperor ; or was he making his queer
noises to hear the queerer echoes that came back to
him, and all the while caring no more for life or deaib
than a parrot or a magpie, or even a poor, half-shapen
soul,-— one of those sacred idiots that have found wor-
shippers before now, and never yet failed to awaken a
chord of sympathy in the heart that is fashioned after
the Divine pattern of the Son of God ?

JOE OF LAHAINA.
I.

WAS stormed in at Lahaina. Now, Labaina
is a little slice of civilization, beached on the
shore of barbarism. One can easily stand
that little of it, for brown and brawny hea-
thendom becomes more wonderful and captivating by
contrast. So I was glad of dear, drowsy, little Lahaina ;
and was glad, also, that she had but one broad street,
which possibly led to destruction, and yet looked lovely
in the distance. It didn't matter to me that the one
broad street had but one side to it ; for the sea lapped
over the sloping sands on its lower edge, and the sun
used to set right in the face of every solitary citizen of
Lahaina, just as he went to supper.

I was waiting to catch a passage in a passing schooner,
and that's why I came there ; but the schooner flashed
by us in a great gale from the south^ and so I was
stormed in indefinitely.

It was Holy Week, and I concluded to go to house-
keeping, because it would be so nice to have my frugal
meals in private, to go to mass and vespers daily, and
then to come back and feel quite at home. My villa was

104 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

suburban, — ^built of dried grasses on the model of a hay-
stack, dug out in the middle, with doors and windows
let into the four sides thereof. It was planted in the
midst of a vineyard, with avenues stretching in all direc-
tions, under a network of stems and tendrils.

'' Her breath is sweeter than the sweet winds
That breathe over the grape-blossoms of Lahaina."

So the song said ; and I began to think upon the sur-
passing sweetness of that breath, as I inhaled the sweet
winds of Lahaina, while the wilderness of its vineyards
blossomed like the rose. I used to sit in my verandah
and turn to Joe (Joe was my private and confidential
servant), and I would say to Joe, while we scented the
odour of grape, and saw the great banana-leaves waving
their cambric sails, and heard the sea moaning in the
melancholy distance, — I would say to him, " Joe, house-
keepmg is good fun, isn't it ? " Whereupon Joe would
utter a sort of unanimous Yes, with his whole body and
soul ; so that question was carried triumphantly, and we
would relapse into a comfortable silence, while the voices
of the wily singers down on the city front would whisper
to us, and cause us to wonder what they could possibly
be doing at that moment in the broad way that led to
destruction. Then we would take a drink of cocoa-milk,
and finish our bananas, and go to bed, because we had
nothing else to do.

This is the way that we began our co-operative house-
keeping : One night, when iliere was a riotous sort of
a festival oflF in a retired valley, I saw, in the excited
throng of natives who were going mad over their na-
tional dance, a young face that seemed to embody a

JOE OF LAHAJNA. 105

whole tropical romance. On another night, when a lot
of us were bathing in the moonlight, I saw a figure so
fresh and joyous that I began to realize how the old
Greeks could worship mere physical beauty and forget
its higher forms. Then I discovered that face on this
body, — a rare enough combination, — and the whole con-
stituted Joe, a young scapegrace who was schooling at
Lahaina, under the eye — ^not a very sharp one — of his
unde. When I got stormed in, and resolved on house-
keeping for a season, I took Joe, bribing his uncle to
keep the peace, which he promised to do, provided I
gave bonds for Joe's irreproachable conduct while with
me. I willingly gave bonds — ^verbal ones — ^for this was
just what I wanted of Joe : namely, to instil into his
youthful mind those counsels which, if rigorously fol-
lowed, must result in his becoming a true and unterrified
American. This compact settled, Joe took up his bed, —
a roll of mats, — ^and down we marched to my villa, and
began housekeeping in good earnest.

We soon got settled, and began to enjoy life, though
we were not without occasional domestic infelicities.
For instance, Joe would wake up in the middle of the
night, declaring to me that it wcu morning, and there-
upon insist upon sweeping out at once, and in the most
vigorous manner. Having filled the air with dust, he
would rush ofi^ to the baker's for our hot rolls and a pat
of breakfast butter, leaving me, meantime, to recover as
I might. Having settled myself for a comfortable hour's
reading, bolstered up in a luxurious fashion, Joe would
enter with breakfast, and orders to the eflect that it be
eaten at once and without delay. It was useless for me
to remonstrate with him : he was tyrannical.

lo6 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

He involyed me in all manner of difficulties. It waa
Holy Week, and I had resolved upon going to mass and
vespers daily. I went. The soft night-wimls floated in
through the latticed windows of the chapel, and made
the candles flicker upon the altar. The little throng of
natives bowed in the impressive silence, and were deeply
moved. It was rest for the soul to be there ; yet, in
the midst of it, while the Father, with his pale, sad face,
gave his instructions, to which we listened as attentively
as possible, — ^for there was something in his manner and
his voice that made us better creatures, — ^while we lis-
tened, in the midst of it I heard a shrill little whistle, a
sort of chirp, that I knew perfectly well. It was Joe,
sitting on a cocoa-stump in the garden adjoining^ and
beseeching me to come out, right ofll When service
was over, I remonstrated with him for his irreverence.
"Joe," I said, "if you have no respect for religion
yourself, respect those who are more fortunate than
you." But Joe was dressed in his best, and quite wild
at the entrancing loveliness of the night. " Let's walk
a little," said Joe, covered with fragrant wreaths, and
redolent of cocoanut-oil. What could I do ? If I had
tried to do anything to the contrary, he might have
taken me and thrown me away somewhere into a well,
or a jungle, and then I could no longer hope to touch
the chord of remorse, — ^which chord I sought vainly,
and which I have since concluded was not in Joe's phy-
sical corporation at all. So we walked a Uttle. In vain
I strove to break Joe of the shocking habit of whistling
me out at vespers. He would persist in doing it. More-
over, during the day he would collect crui^s of bread and
banana-skins, station himsdf in ambush behind the cor-

yOff OF LAHAINA, vyi

tain of the window next the lane, and, as some solitary
creature strode solemnly past, Joe would discharge a
volley of ammunition over him, and then laugh immo-
derately at his indignation and surprise. Joe was my
pet elephant, and I was obliged to play with him very
cautiously.

One morning he disappeared. I was without the con-
solations of a breakfast, even. I made my toilet, went
to my portmanteau for my purse, — for I had decided
upon a visit to the baker, — when lo I part of my slender
means had mysteriously disappeared. Joe was gone,
and the money also. All day I thought about it. In
the morning, after a very long and miserable night, I
woke up, and when I opened my eyes, there, in the
doorway, stood Joe, in a brand-new suit of clothes, in-
cluding boots and hat. He was gorgeous beyond de-
scription, and seemed overjoyed to see me, and as merry
as though nothing unusual had happened. I was quite
startled at this apparition. " Joseph ! " I said in my
severest tones, and then turned over and looked away
from him. Joe evaded the subject in the most delicate
manner, and was never so interesting as at that moment.
He sang his speoiaUties, and played clumsily upon his
bamboo flute, — to soothe me, I suppose, — ^and wanted
me to eat a whole flat pie which he had brought home
as a peace-offering, buttoned tightly under his jacket.
I saw I must strike at once, if I struck at all ; so I
said, "Joe, what on earth did you do with that money?"
Joe said he had replenished his wardrobe, and bought
the flat pie especially for me. " Joseph," I said, with
great dignity, " do you know that you have been steal-
ing, and that it is highly sinful to steal, and may result

lo8 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

in Bomething unpleasant in the world to come ? " Joe
said, " Yes," pleasantly, though I hardly think he meant
it ; and then he added, mildly, " that he couldn't He," —
which was a glaring falsehood, — " but wanted me to be
sure that he took the money, and so had come back to
UA\ me."

*^ Joseph," I said, "you remind me of our noble
Washington"; and, to my amazement, Joe was morti-
fied. He didn't, of course, know who Washington was,
but he suspected that I was ridiculing him. He came
to the bed and haughtily insisted upon my taking the
little change he had received from his customers, but I
implored him to keep it, as I had no use at all for it,
and, as I assured him, I much preferred hearing it jingle
in his pocket.

The next day I sailed out of Lahaina, and Joe came
to the beach with his new trousers tucked into his new
boots, while he waved his new hat violently in a final
adieu, much to the envy and admiration of a score of
hatless urchins, who looked upon Joe as the glass of
fashion, and but little lower than the angels. When I
entered the boat to set sail, a tear stood in Joe's bright
eye, and I think he was really sorry to part with me ;
and I don't wonder at it, because our housekeeping
experiences were new to him, — and, I' may add, not un-
profitable.

JOE OF LAHAINA. 109

IL

Some months of mellow and beautiful weather found
me wandering here and there among the islands, when
the gales came on again, and I was driven about home-
less, and sometimes friendless, until, by-and-by, I heard
of an opportunity to visit Molokai, — ^an island seldom
visited by the tourist, — ^where, perhaps, I could get a
close view of a singularly sad and interesting colony of
lepers.

The whole island is green, but lonely. As you ride
over its excellent turnpike, you see the ruins of a nation
that is passing, like a shadow, out of sight. Deserted
garden-patches, crumbling walls, and roofs tumbled into
the one state-chamber of the house, while knots of long
grass wave at halfmast in the chinks and crannies. A
land of great traditions, of magic, and witchcraft, and
spirits. A fertile and fragrant solitude. How I en-
joyed it ; and yet how it was all telling upon me, in
its own way I One cannot help feeling sad there, for
he seems to be living and moving in a long reverie, out
of which he dreads to awaken to a less pathetic life. I
rode a day or two among the solemn aftd reproachful
ruins with inexpressible complacence, and, having finally
climbed a series of verdant and downy hills, and ridden
for twenty minutes in a brisk shower, came suddenly
upon the brink of a great precipice, three thousand feet
in the air. My horse instinctively braced himself, and
I nervously jerked the bridle square up to my breast-
bone, as I found we were poised between heaven and
earth, upon a trembling pinnacle of rock. A broad

Iio SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

peninsular was stretched below me, covered with grassy-
hills ; here and there clusters of brown huts were
visible, and to the right, the white dots of houses to
which I was hastening, for that was the leper village.
To that spot were the wandering and afflicted tribes
brought home to die. Once descending the narrow
stairs in the cliflP under me, never again could they hope
to strike their tents and resume their pilgrimage ; for
the curse was on them, and necessity had narrowed
down their sphere of action to this compass, — ^a solitary
slope between sea and land, with the invisible sentinels
of Fear and Fate for ever watching its borders.

I seemed to be looking into a fiery furnace, wherein
walked the living bodies of those whom Death had
already set his seal upon. What a mockery it seemed
to be climbing down that crag, — ^through wreaths of
vine, and under leafy cataracts breaking into a foam of
blossoms a thousand feet below me ; swinging aside the
hanging parasites that obstructed the narrow way, —
entering flie valley of death, and the very mouth of hell,
by these floral avenues !

A brisk ride of a couple of miles across the breadth
of the peninsula brought me to the gate of the keeper
of the settlement, and there I dismounted, and hastened
into the house, to be rid of the curious crowd that had
gathered to receive me. The little cottage was very
comfortable, my host and hostess friends of precious
memory ; and with them I felt at once at home, and
began the new life that every one begins when the
earth seems to have been suddenly transformed into
some better or worse world, and he alone survives the
transformation.

yOE OF LAHAINA. Ill

Have you never had such an experience ? Then go
into the midst of a communiiy of lepers ; have ever
before your eyes their Gorgon-like faces ; see the
horrors, hardly to be recognized as human, that grope
about you ; listen in vain for the voices that have been
hushed for ever by decay ; breathe the tainted atmo-
sphere ; and bear ever in mind that, while they hover
about you, — ^forbidden to touch you, yet longing to
clasp once more a hand that is perfect and pure, — ^the
insidious seeds of the malady may be generating in your
vitals, and your heart, even then, be drunk with death I

I might as well confess that I slept indifferently the
first night ; that I was not entirely free from nervous-
ness the next day, as I passed through the various
wards assigned to patients in every stage of decomposi-
tion. But I recovered myself in time to observe the
admirable system adopted by the Hawaiian government
for the protection of its unfortunate people. I used to
sit by ^Q window and see the processions of the less
aflSicted come for little measures of milk, morning and
evening. Then there was a continuous raid upon the
ointment-pot, with the contents of which they delighted
to anoint themselves. Trifling disturbances sometimes
brought the plaintiflF and defendant to the front gate,
for final judgment at the hands of their beloved keeper.
And it was a constant entertainment to watch the pror
gress of events in that singular little world of doomed
spirits. They were not unhappy. I used to hear them
singing every evening : their souls were singing while
their bodies were falling rapidly to dust. They con-
tinued to play their games, as well as they could play
them with the loss of a finger joint or a toe, from week

112 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

to week 2 it is thus gradually and thus slowly that they
died, feeling their voices growing fainter and their
strength less, as the idle days passed oyer them and
swept them to the tomb.

Sitting at the window on the second evening, as the
patients came up for milk, I observed one of them
watching me intently, and apparently trying to make
me understand something or other, but what that some-
thing was I could not guess. He rushed to the keeper
and talked excitedly with him for a moment, and then
withdrew to one side of the gate and waited till the
others were served with their milk, still watching me all
the while. Then the keeper entered and told me how I
had a friend out there who wished to speak with me, —
some one who had seen me somewhere, he supposed, but
whom I would hardly remember. It was their way
never to forget a face they had once become familiar
with. Out I went. There was a face I could not have
recognized as anything friendly or human. Knots of
flesh stood out upon it ; scar upon scar disfigured it.
The expression was like that of a mummy, stony and
withered. The outlines of a youthful figure were
preserved, but the hands and feet were pitiful to look at.
What was this ogre that knew me and loved me still ?

He soon told me who he once had been, but was no
longer. Our little, unfortunate " Joe," my Lahaina
charge. In his case the disease had spread with fearful
rapidity : the keeper thought he could hardly survive
the year. Many linger year after year, and cannot
die ; but Joe was more fortunate. His life had been
brief and passionate, and death was now hastening him
to his dissolution.

JOE OF LAHAINA, 113

Joe was forbidden to come near me, so he crouched
down by the fence, and pressing his hands between the
pickets sifted the dust at mj feet, while he wailed in a
low voice, and called me, over and over, " dear friend,"
"good friend," and "master." I wish I had never
seen him so humbled. To think of my disreputable
httle proUgiy who was wont to lord it over me as
though he had been a bom chief, — ^to think of Joe as
being there in his extremity, grovelling in the dust at
my feet ; forbidden to dimb the great wall of flowers
that towered between him and his beautiful world, while
the rough sea lashed the coast about him, and his only
companions were such hideous foes as would frighten
one out of a dream I

How I wanted to get dose to him 1 but I dared not ;
so we sat there with the slats of the fence between us,
while we talked very long in the twilight ; and I was
glad when it grew so dark that I could no longer see
his face, — ^his terrible face, that came to kill the memory
of his former beauiy.

And Joe wondered whether I still remembered how
we used to walk in the night, and go home, at last, to
our Uttle house when Lahaina was as still as death, and
you could almost hear the great stars throbbing in the
clear sky I How well I remembered it, and the day
when we went a long way down the beach, and, looking
back, saw a wide curve of the land cutting the sea like
a sickle, and turning up a white and shining swath I
Then, in another place, a grove of cocoa-palms and a
melancholy, monastic-looking building, with splendid
palm-branches in its broad windows ; for it was just
after Palm Sunday, and the building belonged to a

8

114 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

Sisterhood. And I remembered how the clouds fell and
the rain drove us into a sudden shelter, and we ate
tamarind-jam, spread thick on thin slices of bread, and
were supremely happy. In this connection, I could not
forget how Joe became very unruly about that time^
and I got mortified, and found great difficulty in getting
him home at all ; and yet the memory of it would have
been perfect but for this fate. Joe ! my poor, dear,
terrible cobra I to think that I should ever be afraid to
look into your face in my life !

Joe wanted to call to my mind one other reminiscence,
— a night when we two walked to the old wharf, and
went out to the end of it, and sat there looking inland,
watching the inky waves slide up and down the beach,
while the full moon rose over the superb mountains
where the clouds were heaped like wool, and the very
air seemed full of utterances that you could almost hear
and understand but for something that made all a
mystery. I tried then, if ever I tried in my life, to
make Joe a little less bad than he was naturally, and
he seemed nearly inclined to be better, and would, I
think, have been so, but for the thousand temptations
that gravitated to him when we got on solid earth again.
He forgot my precepts then, and I'm afraid I forgot
them myself. Joe remembered that night vividly. I
was touched to hear him confess it ; and I pray earnestly
that that one moment may plead for him in the last day,
if, indeed, he needs any special plea other than that
Nature has published for her own.

" Sing for me, Joe," said I ; and Joe, still crouching
on the other side of the lattice, sang some of his old
songs. One of them, a popular melody, was echoed

JOE OF LAHAINA. "' 115

through the little settlement, where faint voices caught
up the chorus, and the night was wildly and weirdly
musical. We walked by the sea the next day, and the day
following that, Joe taking pains to stay on the leewai^i
side of me, — he was so careful to keep the knowledge
of his fate uppermost in his mind : how could I dismiss
it from my own, when it was branded in his counte-
nance ? Tie desolated beauty of his face pleaded for
measureless pity, and I gave it, out of my prodigality,
yet felt that I could not begin to give sufficient.

Link by link he was casting off his hold on life ; he
was no longer a complete being ; his soul was pros-
trated in the miry clay, and waited, in agony, its lono-
deliverance.

In leaving the leper village, I had concluded to say
nothing to Joe, other than the usual '^ aloha'*'* at nio-ht,
when I could ride off, in the darkness, and, sleeping at
the foot of the cliff, ascend it in the first light of the
morning, and get well on my journey before tiie heat of
the day. We took a last walk by the rocks on the
shore ; heard the sea breathing its long breath under
the hollow cones of lava, with a noise like a giant leper
in his asthmatic agony. Joe heard it, and laughed a
little, and then grew silent ; and finally said he wanted
to leave the place, — ^he hated it ; he loved Lahaina
dearly: how was everybody in Lahaina? — a question he
had asked me hourly since my arrival.

When night came I asked Joe to sing, as usual ; so
he gathered his mates about him, and they sang the
songs I liked best. The voices rang, sweeter than ever,
up from the grou^j of singers congregated a few rods
off, in the darkness ; and while they sang, my horse

Ii6 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

was saddled, and I quietly bade adieu to jay dear
friends, the keepers, and mounting, walked the horse
slowly up the grass-grown road, I shall never see little
Joe again, with his pitiful face, growing gradually as
dreadful as a cobra's, and almost as fascinating in its
hideousness. I waited, a little way off, in the darkness,
waited and listened, till the last song was ended, and I
knew he would be looking for me, to say Oood-night.
But he didn't find me ; and he will never again find me
in this life, for I left him sitting in the dark door of his
sepulchre, — sitting and singing in the mouth of his
grave, — clothed all in death.

THE NIGHT-DANCERS OF WAIPIO.

HE afternoon sun was tinting the snowy crest
of Mauna Kea, and folds of shadow were
draping the sea-washed eastern cliflFs of
Hawaii^ as Felix and I endeavoured to
persuade our fitgged steeds that they must go and live,
or stay and die in the middle of a lava-trail by no means
inviting. As we rode, we thought of the scandal that
had so recently regaled our too willing ears: here it is,
in a mild solution, to be taken with three parts of dis-
belief.

Two venerable and warm-hearted missionaries, whose
good works seemed to have found dissimilar expression,
equally effective, I trust, proved their specialties to be
church-building.

Rev. Mr. A seemed to think the more the merrier,
and his pretty little meeting-houses looked as though
they had been baked in the lot, like a sheet of biscuits;
while Rev. Mr. B condensed his efforts into the con-
summation of one resplendent edifice. Mr. A was
always wondering why Mr. B should waste his money
in a single church, while Mr. B was nonplussed at
seeing Mr. A break out in a rash of diminutive chapels.
Well, Felix and I were riding northward up the coast.

Il8 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

over dozens and dozens of lovely ridges; through scores
of deep gullies cushioned with ferns as high as our
pommels, and fording numberless streams, white with
froth and hurry, eagerly seeking the most exquisite
valley in the Pacific, as some call it. We rode till we
were tired out twenty times over; again and again we
looked forward to the bit of Mardi-life we were about
to experience in the vale of the Waipio, while now and
then we passed one of Mr. A's pretty Uttle churches.
Once we were impatient enough to make inquiry of a
native who was watching our progress with considerable
emotion: there is always some one to watch you when
you are wishing yourself at the North Pole. Our single
spectator affected an air of gravity, and seemed quite
interested as he said, " Go six or seven churches farther
on that trail, and you'll come to Waipio." On we went
with renewed spirits, for the churches were frequent,
almost within sight of each other. But we faltered
presently and lost our reckoning, they were so much
alike. Again we asked our way of a solitary watcher
on a hill-top, who had had his eye upon us ever since
we rose above the rim of the third ridge back : he
revealed to us the glad fact that we were only two
churches from Paradise I How we tore over the rest
of that straight and narrow way with the little life left
to us, and came in finally all of a foam, fairly jumping
the last mite of a chapel that hung upon the brink of
the beautiful valley like a swallow's nest 1 And down
we dropped into fifty fathoms of the sweetest twilight
imaginable, — so sweet it seemed to have been bom of a
wilderness of the night-blooming cereus and fed for ever
on jasmine buds.

THE NIGHT'DANCERS OF WAIPIO. 119

There were shelter and refreshment for two hungry
souls, and we slid out of our saddles as though we had
been boned expressly for a cannibal feast.

By this time the rosy flush on Mauna Kea had faded,
and its superb brow was pale with an unearthly pallor.
'^ Come in," said the host; and he led us under the
thatched gable, that was fragrant as new-mown hay.
There we sat, " in," as ho called it, though there was
never a side to the concern thicker than a shadow.

A stream flowed noiselessly at our feet. Canoes
drifted by us, with dusky and nude forms bowed over
the paddles. Each occupant greeted us, being guests
in the valley, just lifting their slumberous eyelids, —
masked batteries, that made Felix forget his danger;
they seldom paused, but called back to us from the
gathering darkness with inexpressibly tender, contralto
voices.

In another apartment screened with vines we fouijd
our dinner ready. The feint flicker of the tapers sug-
gested that what breath of air might be stirring came
from the mountain, and it brought with it a message
from the orangery up the valley. " How will you take
your oranges?" queried Felix; "in pulp, liquid, or
perfume ? "-:— -and such a dense odour swept past us at
the moment, I thought I had taken them in the triple
forms. " You are just in time," said our host. " Why,
what's up ? " asked I. " The moon will be up presently,
and after moonrise you shall see the huld-hula,^^

Felix desired to be enlightened as to the nature of
the what-you-call-it, and was assured that it was worth
seeing, and would require no explanatory chorus whe^
its hour cam^

120 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

It was at least a mile to the scene of action; a tortu-
ous stream wound thither, navigable in spots, but from
time to time the canoe would have to take to the banks
for a short cut into deeper water.

" I can never get there," growled Felix ; " I'm full
of needles and pins ; " to which the host responded by
excusing himself for a few moments, leaving Felix and
me alone. It was deathly still in the valley, though a
tliousand crickets sang, and the fish smacked their round
mouths at the top of the water. Evening comes slowly
in those beloved tropics, but it comes so satisfactorily
that there is nothing left; out.

A moonlight night is a continuous festival. The
natives sing and dance till daybreak, making it all up
by sleeping till the next twilight. Nothing is lost by
this ingenious and admirable arrangement. Why should
they sleep, when a night there has the very essence of
five nights anywhere else, extracted and enriched with
spices till it is so inspiring that the soul cries out in
triumph, and the eyes couldn't sleep if they would ?

At this period, enter to us the host, with several
young native girls, who seat themselves at our feet,
clasping each a boot>-leg encasing the extremities of
Felix and myself.

Felix kicked violently, and left the room with some
embarrassment, and I appealed to the hospitable gentle-
man of the house, who was smiling somewhat audibly at
our perplexity.

He assured me that if I would throw myself upon the
mats in the comer, two of these maids would speedily
relieve me of any bodily pain I might at that moment
be suffering with.

THE NIGHT-DANCERS OF WAIPIO, I2I

I did so: the two proceeded as set down in the verbal
prospectus; and whatever bodily pain I may have pos-
sessed at the beginning of the process speedily dwindled
into insignificance by comparison with the tortures of
my novel cure. Every limb had to be unjointed and
set over again. Places were made for new joints, and
I think the new joints were temporarily set in, for my
arms and legs went into angles I had never before seen
them in, nor have I since been able to assume those
startling attitudes. The stomach was then kneaded like
dough. The ribs were crushed down against the spine,
and then forced out by well-directed blows in the back.
The spinal column was undoubtedly abstracted, and
some mechanical substitute now does its best to help me
through the world. The arms were tied in bow-knots
behind, and the skull cracked like the shell of a hard-
boiled egg, worked into shape again, and left to
heal.

By this time I was unconscious, and for an hour my
sleep promised to be eternal. I must have lain flat on
the matting, without a curve in me, when Nature,
taking pity, gradually let me rise and assume my own
proportions, as though a little leaven had been mixed in
my making over.

The awakening was like coming from a bath of the
elements. I breathed to the tips of my toes. Perfumes
penetrated me till I was saturated witli them. I felt a
thousand years younger; and as I looked back upon the
old life I seemed to have risen from, I thought of it
much as a butterfly must think of his grub-hood, and
was in the act of expanding my wings, when I saw
Felix, just recovering, a few feet from me, apparently

laa SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

as ecstatic as m jsolf. I never dared to ask him how he
was reduced to submission, for I little imagined he could
so fiir forget himself. There are some sudden and inex-
plicable rcYolutions in the affiiirs of humaniiy that should
not be looked into too closely, because a chaotic chasm
yawns between the old man and the new, which no one
has ever yet explored. Felix sprang to his feet like
Prometheus unbound, and embraced me with fervour,
as one might after a hair-breadth escape, exclaiming,
*^Did you ever see anything like it. Old Boy?" to
which the Old Boy, thus familiarly addressed (0. B. is
a pet monogram of mine, designed and frequently exe-
cuted by Felix), responded, " There wasn't much to see,
but my feelings were past expression." "What's its
name?" asked Felix. "I think they call it lomi-
lomij^ said I. "Pass lomiMymi!" shouted Felix;
and then we both roared again, which summoned the
host, who congratulated us and invited us to his
canoe.

Felix again endeavoured to fathom the mysteries of
the hulonhula. Was it something to eat? — did they
keep it tied in the daytime ? — what was its colour ? etc.,
till the amused gentleman who was conducting us to an
exhibition of the great Unknown nearly capsized our
absurdly narrow canoe in the very deepest part of iiie
creek. Bands of fishermen and women passed us,
wading breast-high in the water, beating it into a foam
before them, and singing at the top of their voices as
they drove the fish down stream into a broad net a few
rods below. Grass-houses, half buried in foliage, lined
the mossy banks; while the dusky groups of women and
children, clustering about the smouldering flames that

TITE NIGHT-DANCERS OF WAIPIO. ia3

betokened the preparation of the evening meal, added
not a little to the poetry of twilight in the tropics.

Felix thought he would like to turn Kanaka on the
fpot; so we beached the canoe, and approached the fire,
built on a hollow stone under a tamarind-tree, and were
at once offered the cleanest mat to sit on, and a calabash
of 'poi for our refreshment. How to eat paste without a
spoon was the next question. The whole family volun-
teered to show us; drew up around the calabash in a
hungry circle, and dipped in with a vengeance. Six
right hands spread their first and second fingers like
sign-boards pointing to a focus in the very centre of that
poi-paste; six fists dove simultaneously, and were buried
in the luscious mass. There was a spasmodic working
in the elbows, an effort to come to the top, and in a
moment the hands were lifted alofb in triumph, and
seemed to be tracing half a dozen capital O's in the
transparent air, during which manoeuvre the mass of poi
adhering to the fingers assumed feir proportions, resem-
bling, to a remarkable degree, large, white swellings;
whereupon they were immediately conveyed to the
several mouths, instinctively getting into the right one,
and, having discharged freight, reappeared as good as
ever, if not better than before.

" Disgusting ! " gasped Felix, as he returned to the
water-side. I thought him unreasonable in his harsh
judgment, assuring him that our own flour was fingered
as often before it came, at last, to our lips in the form of
bread* " Moreover," I added, " this 'poi is glutinous :
the moment a finger enters it, a thin coating adheres to
the skin, and that finger may wander about the calabash
all day without touching auotber particle of the sub*

124 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

stance. Therefore^ six or sixteen fellows fingering in one
dish for dinner are in reality safer than we, who eat
steaks that have been mesmerized under the hands of
the butcher and the cook."

Felix scorned to reply, but breathed a faint prayer for
a safe return to Chicago, as we slid into the middle of
the stream, and resumed our course.

The boughs of densely-leaved trees reached out to one
another across the water. We proceeded with more
caution as the channel grew narrow ; and pressing
through a submerged thicket of reeds, we routed a flock
of water-fowls that wheeled overhead on heavy wings,
filling the valley with their clamour.

Two or three dogs barked sleepily off somewhere in
the darkness, and the voice of some one calling floated
to us as clear as a bird's note, though we knew it must
be far away. We strode through a cane-field, its smoky
plumes just tipped with moonlight, and saw the pinnacle
of Mauna Kea, as spacious and splendid as ilie fairy
pavilion that Nourgihan brought to Pari-Banou, illu-
minated as for a festival. To the left, a stream fell from
the cliff, a ribbon of gauze fluttering noiselessly in the
wind.

" 0, look 1 " said Felix, who had yielded again to the
influences of Nature. Looking, I saw the moon resting
upon the water for a moment, while the dew seemed
actually to drip from her burnished disc. Again Felix
exclaimed, or was on the point of exclaiming, when he
checked himself in awe. I ran to him, and was silent
with him, while we two stood worshipping one stately
palm that rested its glorious head upon the glowinor
bosom of the moon, like the Virgin in the radiant auroela.

THE NIGHT-DANCERS OF nAIPIO. 125

'^ Well," said our host, " supposing we get along I "
We got along, by land and water, into a village in an
orange-grove. There was a subdued murmur of many
voices. I think the whole community would have burst
out into a song of some sort at the slightest provocation.
On we paced, in Indian file, through narrow lanes, under
the shining leaves. Pale blossoms rained down upon us,
and the air was oppressively sweet. Groups of natives
sat in the lanes, smoking and laughing. Lovers made
love in the face of heaven, utterly unconscious of any
human presence. Felix grew nervous, and proposed
withdrawing ; but whither, Felix, in all these islands,
wouldst thou hope to find love unrequited, or lovers
shamefaced withal? Much Chicago hath made thee mad!

Through a wicket we passed, where a sentinel kept
ward. Within the bamboo paling, a swarm of natives
gathered about us, first questioning the nature of our
visit, which having proved entirely satisfactory, we were
welcomed in re^l earnest, and ofiered a mat in an inner
room of a large house, rather superior to the average,
and a disagreeable liquor, — ^brewed of oranges, very
intoxicating when not diluted, and therefore popular.

We were evidently the lions of the hour, for we sat
in the centre of the first row of spectators who were
gathered to witness the hula-hula. We reclined as
gracefully as possible upon our mats, supported by plump
pillows, stuffed with dried ferns. Slender rushes —
strung with Aiufciti-nuts, about the size of chestnuts, and
very oily — ^were planted before us like footlights, which,
being lighted at the top, burned slowly downward, till the
whole were consumed, giving a good flame for several
hours.

126 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

The great mat upon the floor before us was the stage.
On one side of it a half-dozen muscular fellows were
squatted, with large calabashes headed with tightly-drawn
goat skins. These were the drummers and singers,
who could beat nimbly with their fingers, and sing
the epics of their country, to the unceasing joy of all
listeners. " It's an opera ! " shouted Telix, in a frenzy
of delight at his discovery. A dozen performers entered,
sitting in two lines, face to face, — six women and six
men. Each bore a long joint of bamboo, slit at one end
like a broom. Then began a singularly intricate exer-
cise, called pi^lii. Taking a bamboo in one hand, they
struck it in the palm of the other, on the shoulder, on
the floor in front, to left and right ; thrust it out before
them, and were parried by the partners opposite; crossed
it over and back, and turned in a thousand ways to a
thousand metres, varied with chants and pauses. " Then
it's a pantomime," added Felix, getting interested in the
unusual skill displayed. For half an hour or more the
thrashing of the bamboos was prolonged, while we were
hopelessly confused in our endeavours to follow the bar-
barous harmony, which was never broken nor disturbed
by the expert and tireless performers.

During the first rest, liquor was served in gourds.
Part of Sie company withdrew to smoke, and the con-
versation t>ecame general and noisy. Felix was enthu-
siastic, and drank the health of some of the younger
members of the troupe who had offered him the

gourd.

A rival company then repeated the pi~ulu, with some
additions ; the gourds were again filled and emptied.
" Now for the hulaJiula,^^ said the host, who had im-

THE N/GHT'JJANCERS OF WAlPlO, 127

bibed with Felix, iihough he reserved his enthusiasm for
something less childish than pUulu. It is the national
dance, taught to all children by their parents, but so
dif&cult to excel in that the few who perfect themselves
can afford to travel on this one specialty.

There was a murmur of impatience, speedily checked,
and followed by a burst of applause, as a band of beau-
tiful girls, covered with wreaths of flowers and vines,
entered and seated themselves before us. While the
musicians beat an introductory overture upon the tom-
toms, the dancers proceeded to bind shawls and scarfs
about their waists, turban-fashion. They sat in a line,
facing us, a foot or two apart. The loose sleeves of
their dreeses were caught up at the shoulder, exposing
arms of almost perfect symmetry, while their bare
throats were scarcely hidden by the necklaces of jas-
mines that coiled about them.

Then the leader of the band, who sat, grey-headed
and wrinkled, at one end of the room, throwing back
his head, uttered a long, wild, and shrill guttural, — ^a
sort of invocation to the goddess of the hulorhula.
There had, no doubt, been some sort of sacrifice offered
in the early part of the evening, — such as a pig or a
fowl, — for the dance has a religious significance, and is at^
tended by its appropriate ceremonies. When this clarion
cry had ended, tiie dance began, all joining in with won-
derfully accurate rhythm, the body swaying slowly back-
ward and forward, to left and right ; the arms tossing,
or rather waving, in the air above the head, now beck-
oning some spirit of light, so tender and seductive were
the emotions of the dancers, so graceful and free the
movements of the wrists; now in violence and fear, they

128 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

seemed to repulse a host of devils that hoyered invisiblj
about them.

The spectators watched and listened breathlessly, fas-
cinated by the terrible wildness of the song and the
monotonous thrumming of the accompaniment. Pre-
sentlj the excitement increased. Swiffcer and more
wildly the bare arms beat the air^ embradng, as it were,
the airy forms that haunted the dancers, who rose to
their knees, and, with astonishing agility, caused the
clumsy turbans about their loins to quiver with an un-
dulatory motion, increasing or decreasing with the
sentiment of the song and the enthusiasm of the spec-
tators.

Felix wanted to know ^^how long they could keep
that up and live ? "

Till daybreak, as we found I There was a little rest-
ing spell — a very little resting spell, now and then — ^for
the gourd's sake, or three whiffs at a pipe that would
poison a white man in ten minutes ; and before we half
expected it, or had a thought of urging the unflagging
dancers to continue their marvellous gyrations, they
were at it in terrible earnest.

From the floor to their knees, from their knees to
their feet, now facing us, now turning from us, they
spun and ambled, till the ear was deafened with cheers
and boisterous, half-drunken, wholly passionate laughter.

The room whirled with the reeling dancers, who
seemed encircled with living serpents in the act of swal-
lowing big lumps of something from their throats clear
to the tip of their tails, and the convulsions continued
till the hysterical dancers staggered and fell to the floor
overcome by unutterable &tigue.

THE NIGHT-DANCERS OF WAIPTO. 129

The sympathetic Felix fell with them, his head sinking
under one of the rush candles, that must have burned
mto his brain had he been suffered to immolate himself
at that inappropriate and unholy time and place. This
was the seductive dance still practised in secret, though
the law forbids it ; and to the Hawaiian it is more beau-
tiful, because more sensuous, than anything else in the
world.

I proposed departing at this stage of the festival, but
Felix said it was not practicable. He felt unwell, and
suggested the efficacy of another attack of lomir-lomi.

A slight variation in the order of the dances followed.
A young lover, seated in the centre of the room, beat a
tattoo upon his calabash and sang a song of love. In a
moment he was answered. Out of the darkness rose
the sweet, shrill voice of the loved one. Nearer and
nearer it approached ; the voice rang clear and high,
melodiously swelling upon the air. It must have been
heard far off in the valley, it was so plaintive and pene-
trating. Secreted at first behind shawls hung in the
comer of the room, some dramatic effect was produced
by her entrance at the right moment. She enacted her
part with graceful energy. To the regular and melan-
choly thrumming of the calabash, she sang her song of
love. Yielding to her emotion, she did not hesitate to
betray all, neither was he of the calabash slow to re-
spond; and scorning the charms of goat-skin and gourd,
he sprang toward her in the madness of his soul, when
she, having reached the cUmax of desperation, was hur-
ried from the scene of her conquest amid whirlwinds
of applause.

" It's a dance, that's what it is 1 " muttered Felix, as

9

130 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

(ihe audience began slowlj to disperse. Leading him
back to the canoe, we had the whole night's orgie re
ported to ns in a very mixed and reiterative manner, a?
well as several attempts at illustrating the peculiarities
of the performance, which came near resulting in a
watery grave for three, or an upset canoe, at any rate.
Our host, to excuse any impropriety, for which he felt
more or less responsible, said ^' it was so natural for
them to be jolly under all circumstances, that when they
have concluded to die they make their P.P.C.'s with
infinite grace, and then die on time."

Of course they are jolly; and to prove it, I told Felix
how the lepers, who had been banished to one Uttle
comer of the kingdom, and forbidden to leave there in
the flesh, were as merry as the merriest, and once upon
a time those decaying remnants of humanity actually
gave a grand ball in their hospital There was a general
clearing out of disabled patients, and a brushing up of
old finery, while the ball itself was the topic of conversa-
tion. Two or three young fellows, who had a few
fingers left (they unjoint and drop off as the disease
progresses), began to pick up a tune or two on bamboo
flutes. Old, young, and middle-aged took a sly turn in
some dark comer, getting their stiffened joints limber
again.

Night came at last. The lamps flamed in the death-
chamber of the lazar-house. Many a rejoicing soul had
fled from that foul spot, to flash its white wings in the
eternal sunshine.

At an early hour the strange company assembled.
The wheezing of voices no longer musical^ the shuffing
of half-paralyzed limbs over the bare floor, the melan-

THE NIGHT^DANCERS OF WAIPIO. 131

cholj droning of those bamboo flutes^ and the wild sea
moaning in the wild night were the sweetest sounds that
greeted them. And while the flutes piped dolorously to
this mdovelT spectacle, there was a rushing to and fro
of unlovely figures ; a bleeding, half-blind leper, seizing
another of the accursed beings, — snatching her, as it
were, from the grave, in all her loathsome clay, —
dragged her into the bewfldering maelstrom of the
waltz.

Naturally excitable, heated with exertion, drunk with
the very odours of death that pervaded the hall of
revels, that mad crowd reeled through the hours of the
/efe. Satiated, at last, in the very bitterness of their
unnatural gaiety, they called for the hvIaJiula as a
fitting close.

In that reeking atmosphere, heavy with the smoke
of half-extinguished lamps, they fed on tiie voluptuous
abandon of the dancers till passion itself fainted with
exhaustion.

"That was a dance of death, was it not, Felix?"
Felix lay on his mat, sleeping heavily, and evidently
unmindftd of a single word I had uttered.

Our time was up at daybreak, and, with an endless
deal of persuasion, Felix followed me out of the valley
to the little chapel on the cliff. Our horses took a
breath there, and so did we, bird's-eyeing the scene of
the last night's orgie.

Who says it isn't a delicious spot, — ^that deep, narrow,
and secluded vale, walled by almost perpendicular cliffs,
hung with green tapestries of ferns and vines ; that
slender stream, hke a thread of silver, embroidering a
ca^et of Nature's richest pattern ; that torrent, leaping

13a SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

from the cliflF into a garden of citrons ; the sea sobbing
at its mouth, while wary mariners, coasting in summer
afternoons, catch gUmpses of the tranquil and forbidden
paradise, yet are heedless of all its beauty, and reck
not the rustling of the cane-fields, nor the voices of
the charmers, because — ^because these things are so
common in that latitude that one grows naturally in-
different?

As for Felix, who talks in his sleep of the hiila-
hulaj and insists that only by the lomHomi he shall
bo saved, he points a moral, though at present he is
scarcely in a condition to adorn any tale whatever ;
and the said moral I shall be glad to furnish, on applica-
tion, to any sjinpathetic soul who has witnessed by
proxy the unlawful revels of those nighi>-dancers of
Waipio.

PEABL-HUNTING IN THE POMOTOUS.

HE " Great Western " ducked in the heavy
swell, shipping her regular deck-load of
salt-water every six minutes. Now the
"Great Western" was nothing more nor
less than a seventeen-ton schooner, two hours out
from Tahiti. She was built Uke an old shoe, and
shovelled in a head-sea as though it was her busi-
ness.

It was something like sea Ufe, wading along her
submerged deck from morning till night, with a piece
of raw junk in one hand and a briny biscuit in the
other ; we never could keep a fire in that galley; and
as for hard tack, the sooner it got soaked through the
sooner it was off our minds, for we knew to this com-
plexion it must shortly come.

Two hours out from Tahiti we settled our course,
wafting a theatrical kiss or two toward the gloriously
green pyramid we were turning our backs on, as it
slowly vanished in the blue desert of the sea.

A thousand palm-crowned and foam-girdled reefs
spangle the ocean to the north and east of Tahiti. This
train of lovely satellites is known as the Dangerous Ar-

134 SUMMFR CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

chipelagOy or, more commonly in iliat latitnde, the
Pomotou Islands. It's the very hotbed of cocoa-nut-
oil, pearls, half-famished Kanakas, shells, and ship-
wrecks. The currents are rapid and variable ; the
winds short, sharp, and equally unreliable. If you
would have adventure, the real article and plenty of it,
make your will, bid farewell to home and friends, and
embark for the Pomotous. I started on this principle,
and repented knee-deep in the deck-breakers, as we
butted our way through the billows, bound for one of
the Pomotous on a pearl hunt.

Three days I sat in sackcloth and salt water. Three
nights I swashed in my greasy bunk, like a solitary sar-
dine in a box with the side knocked out. In my heart
of hearts I prayed for deliverance : you see there is no
backing out of a schooner, unless you crave death in
fifty fathoms of phosphorescent liquid and a grave
in a shark's maw. Therefore I prayed for more
wind from the right quarter, for a sea like a boundless
mill-pond; in short, for speedy deliverance on the easiest
terms possible. Notwithstanding, we continued to bang
away at the great waves that crooked their backs under
us and hissed frightfully as they enveloped the " Great
Western " with spray until the fourth night out, when
the moon gladdened us and promised much while we
held our breath in anxiety.

We were looking for land. We'd been looking for
three hours, scarcely speaking all that time. It's a
serious matter raising a Pomotou by moonlight.

" Land I " squeaked a weak voice about six feet above
us. A lank fellow, with his legs corkscrewed around
the shrouds, and his long neck stretched to windward,

pearl-hvnting in the pomotous, 135

where it veered like a weather-cock in a nor'wester,
chuckled as he sung out " Land ! " and felt himself
a Uttie lower than Christopher Columbus thereafter.
" Where away ? " bellowed our chunky little captain,
as important as if he were commanding a grown-up
ship. " Two points on the weather-bow 1 " piped the
lookout, with the voice of one soaring in space, but
unhappily choked in the last word by a sudden lurch
of the schooner that brought him speedily to the deck,
where he lost his identity and became a proper noun,
second person singular, for the rest of the cruise.

Now, " two points " is an indefinite term that em-
braces any obstacle ahead of anything; but the "weather-
bow" has been the salvation of many a craft in her
distress ; so we gave three cheers for the " weather-
bow," and proceeded to sweep the horizon with unwink-
ing gaze. We could scarcely tell how near the land
might lie ; fancied we could already hear the roar of
surf-beaten reefs, and every wave that reared before us
seemed the rounded outhne of an island. Of course
we shortened sail, not knowing at what moment we
might find ourselves close upon some low sea-garden
nestling under the rim of breakers that fenced it in,
and being morally averse to running it down without
warning.

It was scarcely midnight; the moon was radiant; we
were silently watching, wrapped in the deep mystery
that huncf over the weather-bow.

The wind suddenly abated ; it was as though it sifted
through trees and came to us subdued with a whisper
of fluttering leaves and a breath of spice. We knew
what it meant, and our hearts leaped within us as

136 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

over the bow loomed the wave-like outline of shadow
that sank not again like the other waves, neither
floated oflF doud-like, but seemed to be bearing steadily
down upon us, — ^a great whale hungry for a modern
JonaL

What a night it was I We heard the howl of waters
now ; saw the palm-boughs glisten in the moonlight,
and the glitter and the flash of foam that fringed the
edges of the half-drowned islet

It looked for all the world like a grove of cocoa-trees
that had waded out of sight of land, and didn't know
which way to turn next. This was the Ultima Thule
of the " Great Western's " voyage, and she seemed to
know it, for she behaved splendidly at last, laying off
and on till morning in fine style, evidently as proud
as a ship-of-line.

I went below and dozed in the cabin, with the low
roar of the reef quite audible ; a fellow gets used to
such dream-music, and sleeps well to its accompani-
ment.

At daybreak we began beating up against wind and
tide, hoping to work into smooth water by sunrise,
which we did easily enough, shaking hands a2 around
over a cup of thick coffee and molasses as three fathoms
of chain whizzed overboard after a tough little anchor
that buried itself in a dim wilderness of corals and sea-
grass.

Then and there I looked about me with delighted
eyes. The " Q-reat Western " rode at anchor in a
shallow lake, whose crystal depths seemed never to
have been agitated by any harsher breath than at that
moment kissed without ruffling its surface. Around

PEARL-HUNTING IN THE POMOTOUS. 137

ns swept an amphitheatre of hills, covered with a dense
growth of tropical foliage and cushioned to the hem of
the beach with thick sod of exquisite tint and fresh-
•ness. The narrow rim of beach that sloped suddenly
to the tideless margin of the lake was littered witii
numberless slender canoes drawn out of the water like
so many fish, as though they would navigate them-
selves in their natural element, and they were, there-
fore, not to be trusted alone too near it. Around
the shore, across the hills, and along the higher ridges
waved innumerable cocoa-palms, planted like a legion
of lances about the encampment of some barbaric
prince.

As for the very blue sky and the very white scud
that shot across it, they looked windy enough ; more-
over we could all hear the incoherent booming of the
sea upon the reef that encircled our nest. But we for-
got the wind and the waves in the inexpressible repose
of that armful of tropical seclusion. It was a drop of
water in a tuft of moss, on a very big scale ; that's
just what it was.

In a few moments, as with one impulse, the canoes
took to water with a savage or two in each, all gravi-
tating to the schooner, which was for the time being the
head-centre of their local commerce ; and for an hour
or more we did a big business in the exchange of fish-
hooks and fresh fruit.

The proportion of canoes at Motu Hilo (Crescent
Island) to the natives of said fragment of Eden was as
one to several ; but the canoeless could not resist the
superior attraction of a foreign invader, therefore the
rest of the inhabitants went head-first into the lake, and

138 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

struck out for the middle, where we peacefully swung
at anchor.

The place was sharky, but a heavy dirk ftdl tweniy
inches tall was held between the teeth of the swimmers ;
and if the smoke-coloured dorsal of any devil of a shark
had dared to cut the placid surface of the water that
morning, he would speedily have had more blades in
him than a farrier's knife. A few vigorous strokes of
the arms and legs in the neighbourhood, a fatal lunge
or two, a vermilion cloud in a sea churned to a cream,
and a dance over the gaping corpse of some monster
who has sucked human blood more than once, probably,
does the business in that country.

It was a sensation for unaccustomed eves, that inland
sea covered — littered, I might say, with woolly heads,
as though a cargo of cocoanuts had been thrown over«
board in a stress of weather. They gathered about as
thick as flies at a honey-pot, all talking, laughing, and
spouting mouthfuls of water into the air, like those
impossible creatures that do that sort of thing by the
half-dozen in all high-toned and classical fountains.

Out of this amphibious mob one gigantic youth, big
enough to eat half our ship's crew, threw up an arm
like Jove's, clinched the deck-rail with lithe fingers,
and took a rest, swinging there with the utmost satis-
faction.

I asked him aboard, but he scorned ia forsake his
natural element : water is as natural as air to those
natives. Probably he would have suffered financially
had he attempted boarding us, for his thick back
hair was netted with a kind of spacious nest and
filled with eggs on sale. It was quite astonishing to

PEARL-HUNTING IN THE POMOTOUS. 139

see the ease with which he navigated under his heavy
deck-load.

This colossal youth having observed that I was an
amateur humanitarian, virtue received its instant re-
ward (which it does not in all climates), for he at once
offered me three of his eggs in a very winning and
patronizing manner.

I took the eggs because I Kke eggs, and then I was
anxious to get his head above water if possible ; there-
fore I unhesitatingly took the eggs, offering him in
return a fish-hook, a tenpenny nail, and a dilapidated
key-ring.

These tempting curios he spumed, at the same moment
reaching me another fc»^ndftil of eggs. His generosity
both pleased and alarmed me. I saw with joy that his
chin was quite out of water in consequence of his charity,
even when he dropped back into the sea, floating for a
few moments so as to let the blood circulate in his arm
again ; but whether this was his magnanimous gift, or
merely a trap to involve me in hopeless debt, I was
quite at a loss to know, and I paused ydih. my hands
fall of eggs, saying to myself. There is an end to fish-
hooks in the South Pacific, and dilapidated key-rings ,
are not my staple product I

In the midst of my alarm he began making vows of
eternal friendship. This was by no means disagreeable
to me. He was big enough to whip any two of his
fellows, and one Ukes to be on the best side of the
stronger party in a strange land.

I reciprocated 1

I leaned over the stem-rail of the " Q-reat Western **
in ihe attitude of Juliet in the balcony scene, assuring

I40 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

that egg-boy that my heart was his if he was willing to
take it at second-hand.

He liked my sentiments, and proposed touching noses
at once (a barbarous greeting still observed in the most
civilized countries with even greater license, since with
Christians it is allowable to touch mouths).

We touched noses, though I was in danger of sliding
headlong into the sea. Afler this ceremonial he con-
sented to board the "Great Western," which having
accomplished with my help, he deposited his eggs at
my feet, offered me his nose once more, and communi-
cated to me his name, asking in the same breath for
mine.

He was known as Hua Manu, or Bird's Egg. Every
native in the South Sea gets named by accident. I
knew a fellow whose name was " Cock-eye ; " he was a
standing advertisement of his physical deformity. A
fellow that knew me rejoiced in the singular cognomen
of "Thrown from a horse." Fortunately he doesn't
spell it with so many letters in his tongue. His chris-
tening happened in this wise : A bosom friend of his
mother was tiirown from a horse and killed the day of
his birth. Therefore the bereaved mother reared that
child, an animated memorial, who in after years clove
to me, and was as jolly as though his earthly mission
wasn't simply to keep green the memory of his mother's
bosom friend sailing through the air with a dislocated
neck.

I turned to my new-found friend. " Hua Manu,"
said I, "for my sake you have made a bird's-nest of
your back hair. You have freely given me your young
affection and your eggs. Receive the sincere tbmks of

PEARL-HUNTING IN THE POMOTOUS. 141

yours truly, together with these fish-hooks, these ten-
penny nails, this key-ring." Hua Manu smiled and
accepted, burying the fish-hooks in his matted forelock,
and inserting a tenpenny nail and a key-ring in either
ear, thereby making himself the envy of the entire
population of Motu Hilo, and feeling himself as grand
as the best chief in the archipelago.

So we sat together on the deck of the " Great
Western," quite dry for a wonder, exchanging sheepV
eyes and confidences, mutually happy in each other's
society. Meanwhile the captain was arranging his
plans for an inunediate purchase of such pearls as he
might find in possession of the natives, and for a fresh
search for pearl oysters at the earliest possible hour.
There were no pearls on hand. What are pearls
to a man who has as many wives, children, and
cocoanuts as he can dispose of? Pearls are small and
colourless. G-ive them a handfiil of gorgeous glass
beads, a stick of sealing-wax, or some spotted beans,
and keep your pale sea-tears, mUky and frozen, and
apt to grow sickly yellow and die if they are not
cared for.

Motu Hilo is independent. No man has squatted
there to levy tax or toll. We were each one of us
privileged to hunt for pearls and keep our stores sepa-
rate. I said to Hua Manu, ^^ Let's invest in a canoe,
explore the lagoon for fresh oyster-beds, and fill in-
numerable cocoanut shells with these little white seeds.
It will be both pleasant and profitable, particularly for
me." We were scarcely five minutes bargaining for
our outfit, and we embarked at once, having agreed to
return in a couple of days for news concerning the

142 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

success of the "Great Western" and her probable
date of sailing.

Seizing a paddle, Hoa Mann propelled onr canoe with
incredible rapidiiy ont of the noisy fleet in the centre of
the lake, toward a green point that bounded it, one
of the horns of the crescent. He knew a spot where
the oyster yawned in profiision, a secret cave for
shelter, a forest garden of fruits, a never-failing spring,
etc. Thither we would fly and domesticate ourselves.
The long, curved point of land soon hid the inner
waters from view. We rose and sank on the swell
between the great reef and the outer rim of the island,
while the sun glowed fiercely overhead and the reef
howled in our ears. Still on we skimmed, the water
hissing along the smooth sides of the canoe, that trem^
bled at every fierce stroke of Hua Manu's industrious
paddle. No chart, no compass, no rudder, no exchange
of references, no letter of introduction, yet I trusted
that wild Hercules who was hurrying me away, I knew
not whither, with an earnestness that forced the sweat
from his naked body in living streams.

At last we turned our prow and shot through a low
arch in a clifi*, so low that we both ducked our heads
instinctively, letting the vines and parasites trail over
our shoulders and down our backs.

It was a dark passage into an inner cave lit from
below, — a cave filled with an eternal and sunless twi-
light that was very soothing to our eyes as we came in
from the glare of sea and sky.

" Look ! " said Hua Manu. Overhead rose a com-
pressed dome of earth, a thick matting of roots, coil
within coil. At the side innumerable ledges, shelves,

PEARL-HUNTING IN THE POMOTOUS, 143

and seams lined with nests^ and nerer a nest without
its egg, often two or more together. Below us, in two
fathoms of crystal, sunlit and luminous bowers of coral,
and many an oyster asleep with its mouth open, and
many a prismatic fish poising itself with palpitating
gills, and gauzy fins fanning the water incessantly.

" Hua Manu \ " I exclaimed in rapture, " permit me
to congratulate you. In you I behold the regular South
Sea Monte Christo, and no less magnificent title can do
you justice." Thereat Hua Manu laughed immoderately,
which laugh having run out we both sat in our canoe
and silently sucked eggs for some moments.

A canoe-length from where we floated a clear rill
stole noiselessly from above, mingling its sweet waters
with the sea ; on the roof of our cavern fruits flourished,
and we were wholly satisfied. After such a lunch as
ours it behoved us to cease idling and dive for pearls.
So Hua Manu knotted his long hair tightly about his
forehead, cautiously transferred himself from the canoe
to the water, floated a moment, inhaling a wonderfully
long breath, and plunged under. How he struggled to
get down to the gaping oysters, literally climbing down
head-first I I saw his dark form wrestling with the
elements that strove to force him back to the sur&ce,
crowding him out into the air again. He seized one of
the shells, but it shut immediately, and he tugged and
jerked and wrenched at it Uke a young demon till it
gave way, when he struck out and up for air. All
this seemed an age to me. I took ftdl tweniy breaths
while he was down. Beaching the canoe, he dropped
the great, ugly-looking thing into it, and hung over
the outrigger gasping for breath like a man half

144 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

hanged. He was pale about the mouth, his eyes were
suffused with blood, blood oozed from his ears and
nostrils ; his limbs, gashed with the sharp corals, bled
also. The veins of his forehead looked ready to burst,
and as he tightened the cords of hair across them it
seemed his only salvation.

I urged him to desist, seeing his condition, and fear-
ing a repetition of his first experience; but he would
go once more; perhaps there was no pearl in that shell;
he wanted to get me a pearl. He sank again and re-
newed his efforts at the bottom of the sea. I scarcely
dared to count the minutes now, nor the bubbles that
came up to me like little balloons with a death-message
in each. Suppose he were to send his last breath in
one of those transparent globes, and I look down and
see his body snared in the antlers of cond, stained with
his blood ? Well, he came up all right, and I postponed
the rest of my emotion for a later experience.

Some divers remain three minutes under water, but
two or three descents are as many as they can make in
a day. The ravages of such a life are something
frightful.

iNo more pearl-hunting after the second dive that day;
nor the next, because we went out into the air for a
stroll on shore to gather fruit and stretch our legs.
There was a high wind and a heavy sea that looked
'^ threatening enough, and we were glad to return after an
hour's tramp. The next day was darker, and the next
after that, when a gale came down upon us that seemed
likely to swamp Motu Hilo. A swell rolled over the
windward reef and made our quarters in the grotto by
no means safe or agreeable. It was advisable for us to

PEARL-HUNTING IN THE POMOTOUS. 145

think of embarking upon that tempestuous sea^ or get
brained against the roof of our retreat.

Hua Manu looked troubled, and my heart sank. I
wished the pearl oysters at the bottom of the sea, the
*^ Great Western" back at Tahiti, and I loafing under
the green groves of Papeete, never more to be deluded
abroad.

I observed no visible changes in the weather after I
had been wishing for an hour and a half. The swell
rather increased ; our frail canoe was tossed from side
to side in imminent danger of upsetting.

Now and then a heavy roller entirely filled the mouth
of our cavern, quite blinding us with spray ; having
spent its fury, it subsided with a concussion that nearly
deafened us, and dragged us with f earftil velocity toward
the narrow mouth of the cave, where we saved ourselves
from being swept into the sea by grasping the roots
overhead and within reach.

Could I swim ? asked Hua Manu. Alas, no 1 That
we must seek new shelter at any risk was but too evi-
dent. " Let us go on the next wave," said Hua, as he
seized a large shell and began clearing the canoe of the
water that had accumulat>ed. Then he bound his long
hair in a knot to keep it from his eyes, and gave me
some hasty directions as to my deportinent in the emer-
gency.

The great wave came. We were again momentarily
corked up in an air-tight compartment. I wonder the
roof was not burst open with the intense pressure that
nearly forced the eyes out of my head and made me
faint and giddy. Recovering from the shock, with a
cry of warning from Hua, and a prayer scarcely articu-

10

146 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH ^EAS.

lated, we shot like a bomb from a mortar into the very
teeth of a frightfiil gale.

Nothing more was said, nothing seen. The air was
black with flying spray, the roar of the elements more
awAil than anything I had ever heard before. Sheets
of water swept over us with sudi velocity that they
hammed like drcnlar saws in motion.

We were crouched as low as possible in the canoe, yet
now and then one of these, the very blade of the wave,
struck us on the head or shoulders, cutting us like
knives. I could scarcely distinguish Hua's outline, the
spray was so dense, and as for him, what could he do?
Nothing, indeed, but send up a sort of death-wail, a few
notes of which tinkled in my ear from time to time, as-
suring me how utterly without hope we were.

One of those big rollers must have lifted us dean
over the reef, for we crossed it and were blown into the
open sea, where the canoe spun for a second in the
trough of the waves, and was cut into slivers by an
avalanche of water that carried us all dovm into the
depths.

I suppose I filled at once, but came up in spite of it
(almost every one has that privilege), when I was
clutched by Hua Manu and made fast to his utilitarian
back-hair. I had the usual round of experiences allotted
to all half-drowned people : a panoramic view of my
poor life crammed with sin and sorrow and regret ; a
complete biography written and read through inside of
ten seconds. I was half strangled, call it two-thirds, for
that comes nearer the truth ; heard the water singing in

PEARL-HUNTING IN THE POMOTOUS. 147

my ears, which was not sweeter than symphonies, nor
beguiling, nor in the least agreeable. I deny it I In
the face of every corpse that ever was drowned I em-
phatically deny it I

Hna had nearly stripped me with one or two tugs at
my thin clothing, because he didn't think that worth
towing off to some other island, and he was willing to
float me for a day or two, and run the risk of saving me.

When I began to realize anything, I congratulated
myself that the gale was over. The sky was dear, the
white caps scarce, but the swell still sufficient to make
me dizzy as we climbed one big, green hill, and slid off
the top of it into a deep and bubbling abyss.

I found Hua leisurely feeling his way through the
water, perfectly self-possessed and apparency unconscious
that he had a deck passenger nearly as big as himself.
My hands were twisted into his hair in such a way that
I could rest my chin upon my arms, and thus easily keep
my mouth above water most of the time.

My emotions were peculiar. I wasn't accustomed to
travelling in that fashion. I knew it had been done
before. Even there I thought with infinite satisfaction
of the Hawaiian woman who swam for foriy hours in
such a sea, with an aged and helpless husband upon her
back. Beaching land at last she tenderly drew her
burden to shore and found him — dead I The fact is
historical, and but one of several equally marvellous.

We floated on and on, cheering each other hour after
hour ; the wind continuing, the sea £sdling, and anon
night coming like an ill-omen, — ^night, that buried us
alive in darkness and despair.

I think I must have dozed, or fainted, or died several

148 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS

times during the night, for it began to grow light long
before I dared to look for it, and then came sunrise, — a
sort of intermittent sunrise that gilded Hua's shoulder
whenever we got to the top of a high wave, and went
out again as soon as we settled into the hollows.

Hua Manu's eyes were much better than mine ; he
seemed to see with all his five senses, and the five told
^ him that there was land not far off! I wouldn't believe
1 him ; I think I was excusable for questioning his in&Ui-
bility then and there. The minute he cried out '^ Land ! "
I gave up and went to sleep or to death, for I thought
he was daft, and it was discouraging business, and I
wished I could die for good. Hua Manu, what a good
egg you were, though it's the bad that usually keep atop
of the water, they tell me !

Hua Manu was right I he walked out of the sea an
hour later and stood on a mound of coarse sand in the
middle of the ocean, with my miserable, water-logged
body lying in a heap at his feet.

The place was as smooth and shiny and desolate as
anybody's bald head. That's a nice spot to be merry in,
isn't it? Tet he tried to make me open my eyes and
be glad.

He said he knew the " Great Western " would be
coming down that way shortly ; she'd pick us off the
shoal, and water and feed us.

Perhaps she might I Meantime we hungered and
thirsted as many a poor castaway had before us. That
was a good hour for Christian fortitude : beached in the
middle of the ocean ; shelterless under a sun that blis-

)

PEARL-HUNTING IN THE POMOTOUS. 149

tered Hua's tough skin ; eyes blinded with the glare of
sun and sea ; the sand glowing Uke brass and burning
into flesh already irritated with salt water ; a tongue of
leather deaving to the roof of the mouth, and no food
within reach, nor so much as a drop of fresh water for
Christ's sake 1

Down went my face into the burning sand that made
the very air liop above it. . . . Another night, cool and
grateful ; a bird or two flapped wearily overhead, looking
like spirits in the moonlight. Hua scanned earnestly
our narrow horizon, noting every inflection in the voices
of the wind and waves, — ^voices audible to him, but worse
than dumb to me, — ^mocking monotones reiterated
through an agonizing eternity.

A wise monitor was Hua Manu, shaming me to silence
in our cursed banishment. Toward the morning after
our arrival at the shoal, an owl fluttered out of the sky
and fell at our feet quite exhausted. It might have been
blown from Motu Hilo, and seemed ominous of some-
thing, I scarcely knew what. When it had recovered
from its fatigue, it sat regarding us curiously. I wanted
to wring its short, thick neck, and eat it, feathers and
all. Hua objected ; there was a superstition that gave
that bland bird its life. It might continue to ogle us
with one eye as long as it liked. How the lopsided
thing smirked 1 how that stupid owl-face, like a rosette
with three buttons in it, haunted me 1 It was enough
to craze any one ; and, having duly cursed him and his
race, I went stark mad and hoped I was dying for ever.

« « • •

There are plenty of stars in this narrative. Stars, and

ISO SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEA,

plenty of them, cannot account for the oblivions inter-
vals, suspended animation, or whatever it was, that came
to my relief from time to time. I cannot account for
them myself. Perhaps Hua Manu might ; he seemed
always awake, always on the lookout, and ever so patient
and painful. A dream came to me affcer that owl had
stared me into stone, — a dream of an island in a sea of
glass ; soft ripples lapping on the silver shores ; sweet
airs sighing in a starUt grove ; some one gathering me
in his arms, hugging me dose with infinite tenderness ;
I was consumed with thirst, speechless with hunger ;
like an infant I lay in the embrace of my deliverer, who
moistened my parched Ups and burning throat with
deUcious and copious draughts. It was an elixir of life;
I drank health and strength in every drop ; sweeter
than mother's milk flowed the warm tide unchecked,
till I was satisfied, and sank into a deep and dreamless

sleep.

• • « «

The " Great Western " was plunging in her old style,
and I swashed in my bunk as of yore. The captain sat
by me with a bottle in his hand and anxiety in his coun-
tenance.

" Where are we ? " I asked.

" Two hours out from Tahiti, inward bound."

"Howl Whatl When!" etc.; and my mind ran
up and down the record of the last fortnight, finding
many blots and some blanks.

" As soon as I got into my right mind I could hear
all about it ; " and the captain shook his bottle, and held
on to the side of my bunk to save himself from total
wreck in the lee-comers of the cabin.

PEARL-HUNTING IN THE POMOTOUS. 151

" Why, wasn't I right-minded ? I could tell a hawk
from a hemshaw ; and, speaking of hawks, where was
that cursed owl? "

The captain concluded I was bettering, and put the
physic into the locker, so as to give his whole attention
to keeping right side up. Well, this is how it happened,
as I afterward learned : The " Great Western " suffered
somewhat from the gale at Motu Hilo, though she was
comparatively sheltered in that inner sea. Having re-
paired, and given me up as a deserter, she sailed for
Tahiti. The first day out, in a light breeze, they all saw
a man apparently wading up to his middle in the sea.
The fellow jhailed the " Great Western," but as she
could hardly stand up against the rapid current in so
light a wind, the captain let her drift past the man in
the sea, who suddenly disappeared. A consultation of
officers followed. Evidently some one was cast away
and ought to be looked after ; resolved to beat up to
the rock, big turtle, or whatever it might be that kept
that fellow afloat, provided the wind freshened suffi-
ciently; wind immediately freshened ; " Great Western "
put about and made for the spot where Hua Manu
had been seen hailing the schooner. But when that
schooner passed he threw himself upon the sand beside
me, and gave up hoping at last, and was seen no
more.

What did he then? I must have asked for drink.
He gave it me from an artery in his wrist, severed by
the finest teeth you ever saw. That's what saved me.
On came the little schooner, beating up against the
wind and tide, while I had my lips sealed to that
fountain of life.

I $2 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEA.

The skipper kept banging awaj with an old blunder-
buss that had been left over in his bargains with the
savages, and one of these explosions caught the ears of
Hua. He tore my lips from his wrist, staggered to his
feet, and found help close at hand. Too late they
gathered us up out of the deep and strove to renew our
strength. They transported us to the little cabin of the
schooner, Hua Manu, myself, and that mincing owl, and
swung off into the old course. Probably the " Great
Western" never did better sailing since she came from
the stocks than that hour or two of beating that brought
her up to the shoal. She seemed to be emulating it in
the home run, for we went bellowing through the sea in
a stiff breeze and the usual flood-tide on deck.

I lived to tell the tale. I should think it mighty
mean of me not to live afler such a sacrifice. Hua
Manu sank rapidly. I must have nearly drained his
veins, but I don't believe he regretted it. The captain said
when he was dying his faithfiil eyes wore fixed on me.
Unconsciously I moved a little ; he smiled, and the soul
v/ent out of him in that smile, perfectly satisfied. At
that moment the owl fled from the cabin, passed through
the hatchway, and disappeared.

Hua Manu lay on the deck, stretched under a sail,
while I heard this. I wondered if a whole cargo of
pearls could make me indifferent to his loss. I wondered
if there were many truer and braver than he in Christian
lands. They call him a heathen. It was heathenish to
offer up his life vicariously. He might have taken mine
so easily, and perhaps have breasted the waves back to
his own people, and been fSted and sung of as the hero
he truly was.

PEARL-HUNTING IN THE POMOTOUS. 153

Well, if he is a heathen, out of my heart I would
make a parable, its rubric bright with his sacrificial
blood, its theme this glowing text : " Greater love hath
no man than this, that he lay down his life for a
friend."

THE LAST OF THE GEEAT NAVIGATOR.

[HINK of a sea and a sky of such even and
utter blueness that any visible horizon is
out of the question. In the midst of this
pellucid sphere the smallest of propellers
trailing two plumes of sea-foam, like the tail-feathers of
a bird of paradise, and oyer it all a league of floating
crape, — ^for so seem the heavy folds of smoke that hang
above us.

Thus we pass out of our long hours of idleness in that
grove of eight thousand cocoa-palms by the sea-shore, —
the artist and I seeking to renew our dolcefar nierUe
in some new forest of palms by any shore whatever.
Enough that it is sea-washed, and hath a voice and an
eternal song.

Now turn to the stone quarry darkened with the
crroups of the few faithful friends and many islanders.
They are so ready to kill time in the simplest manner ;
why not in staring our awkward little steamer out of
sight?

One glimpse of the white handkerchiefs, fluttering
like a low flight of doves, and then with all the sublime
resignation of the confessed lounger, we await the

4

THE LAST OP^ THE GREAT NAVIGATOR. tJS

approach of twilight and the later hours that shall pre-
sently pass silver-footed over this tropic sea.

Four p.m., and the roar of the reef lost to us voya-
gers. The sun an hour high. The steams of dinner
appealing to us through the yawning hatches,— every-
thing yawning in this latitude, animate and inanimate,
— and the world as hot as Tophet. We lie upon our
mattresses, brought out of the foul cabin into the sweet
air, and pass the night half intoxicated with romance
and cigarettes. The natives cover the deck of our little
craft in lazy and laughing flocks. Some of them regard
us tenderly ; they are apt to love at sight, though
Heaven knows there is little in our untrimmed exteriors
to attract any one under the stars.

We hear, now and then, the sharp dick of flint and
steel, and after it see the flame, and close to the flame a
dark face, grotesque it may be, like an antique water-
spout with dust in its jaws. But some are beautiful,
with glorious eyes that shine wonderfiiUy in ihe excite-
ment of Ughting the pipe anew.

Voices arise at intervals &om among the groups of
younger voyagers. We hear the songs of our own land
worded in oddly and rather prettily broken English.
" Annie Laurie," " When the cruel war is over," and
other equally ambitious and proportionately popular
ballads ring in good time and tune from the lips of tlio
young bloods, but the girls seldom join to any advan-
tage. How strange it all seems, and how we listen 1

With the first and deepest purple of the dawn, the
dim outlines of Molokai arise before us. It is an island
of difls and canons, much haunted of the King, but
usually out of the tourist's guide-book.

156 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

It is hinted one may turn back this modem page of
island civilization, and with it the half-christianized and
wholly bewildered natures of the uncomprehending
natives, and here find all of the old superstitions in their
original significance, the temples, and the shark-god,
and the hula-hvJa, girls, beside whose weird and mad-
dening undulations your can-can dancers are mere
jumping-jacks.

Listen for faint music of the wandering minstrels !
No, we are too far out from shore : then it is the wrong
end of the day for such festivals.

A brief siesta under the opening eyelids of the mom,
and at sunrise we dip our colours abreast charming
Uttle Lahaina, drowsy and indolent, with its two or three
long, long avenues overhung with a green roof of leaves,
and its odd summer-houses and hammocks pitched close
upon the white edge of the shore.

We passed to and fro in the shadow paths an hour or
two, eat of the fruits, luscious and plentiful, and drink
of its Uquors, vile and fortunately scarce, and get us
hats plaited of the coarsest straw and of unbounded rim,
making ourselves still more hideous, if indeed we have
not already reached the acme of the unpicturesque.

Now for hours and hours we hug the shore, slowly
progressing under the insuflScient shadow of the palms,
getting now and then glimpses of valleys folded inland,
said to be lovely and mystical. Then there are mites of
villages always half-grown and half-starved looking, and
always close to the sea. These islanders are amphibious.
The little bronze babies float like corks before they can
walk half the length of a bamboo-mat.

Another night at sea, in the rough channel this time,

THE LAST OF THE GREAT NAVIGATOR. 157

and less enjoyable for the rather stiff breeze on our
quarter, and some very sour-looking clouds overhead.
All well by six, however, when we hear the Angelus
rung from the lower tower of a long coral church in
anottier sea-wedded hamlet. Think of the great bam-
like churches, once too small for the throngs that
gathered about them, now full of echoes, and whose
doors, if they still hang to their hinges, will soon swing
only to the curious winds I

In and out by this strange land, marking all its
curvatures with the fidelity of those shadow lines in the
atks, and so lingering on till the evening of the second
day, when, just at sunset, we turn suddenly into the
bay that saw the last of Captain Cook, and here swing
at anchor in eight fathoms of Uquid crystal over a floor
of shining white coral, and clouds of waving sea-moss.
From the deck behold the amphitheatre wherein was
enacted the tragedy of " The Great Navigator, or
the Vulnerable God." The story is brief and has its
moraL

The approach of Captain Cook was mystical. For
generations the islanders had been looking with calm
eyes of faith for the promised return of a certain god.
Where should they look but to the sea, whence came
all mysteries, and whither retreated the being they
called divine ?

So the white wings of the " Resolution " swept down
upon the lifelong quietude of Hawaii like a messenger
from heaven, and the signal gun sent the first echoes to
the startled mountains of the little kingdom.

They received this Jupiter, who carried his thunders
with him and kindled fires in his mouth. He was the

158 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

first smoker they had seen, though they are now his
most devout apostles. Showing him all due reyerenoe,
he failed to regard their customs and traditions, which
was surely ungodlike, and it rather weakened the faith
of their sages.

A plot was devised to test the diviniiy of the pre-
suming captain.

While engaged in conversation, one of the chiefs was
to rush at Cook with a weapon ; should he cry out or
attempt to run, he was no god, for the gods are fearless;
and if he was no god, he deserved death for his decep-
tion. But if a god, no harm could come of it, for the
gods are immortaL

So they argued, and completed their plans. It came
to pass in the consummation of them that Cook did run,
and thereupon received a stab in the back. Being dose
by the shore he fell, face downward in the water and
died a half-bloody, half-watery, and wholly inglorious
death. His companions escaped to the ship and
peppered the villages by the harbour, till the inhabit-
ants, half frantic, were driven into the hills.

Then they put to sea, leaving the body of their com-
mander in the hands of the enemy, and with flag at half-
mast were blown sullenly back to England, there to
inaugurate the season of poems, dirges, and pageants in
honour of the Great Navigator.

His bones were stripped of flesh, afterwards bound
with ha/pa^ the native cloth, and laid in one of the
hundred natural cells that perforate the diff in front of
us, and under whose shadow we now float. Which of
the hundred is the one so honoured is quite uncertain.
What does it matter, so long as the whole mountain is a

THE LAST OF THE GREAT NA VIGATOR. 159

catacomb of kings ? No commoners are buried there.
It was a kind and worthy impulse that could still vene-
rate so far the mummy of an idol of such palpable clay
as his.

Many of these singular caverns are almost inacces-
sible. One must climb down by ropes from the cliflf
above. Rude bars of wood are laid across the mouths
of some of them. It is the old tahu never yet broken.
But a few years back it was braving death to attempt
to remove them.

Cook's flesh was most likely burned. It was then a
custom. But his heart was left untouched of the flames
of this sacrifice. What a salamander the heart is that
can withstand the fires of a judgment t

The story of this heart is the one shocking page in
this history : some children discovered it afterwards,
and, thinking it the offal of an animal, devoured it.
Whoever affirms that the " Sandwich-Islanders eat each
other," has at least this ground for his affirmation.
Natives of the South Sea Islands have been driven as
far north as this in their frail canoes. They were can-
nibals, and no doubt were hungry, and may have eaten
in their fashion, but it is said to have been an acquired
taste, and was not at all popular in this region.
Dramatic justice required some tragic sort of revenge,
and this was surely equal to the emergency.

Our advanced guard, in the shape of a month-earlier
tourist, gave us the notes for doing this historical nook
in the Pacific. A turned-down page, it is perhaps a
little too dog-eared to be read over again, but we all
like to compare notes. So we noted the items of the
advance-guard; and they read in this Cushion :«^

l6o SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

OBJECTS OF INTEREST RELATING TO CAPTAIN

COOK.

Item I. The tree where CcM>k was struck,

n. The rock where Cook felL

III. The altar on the hill-top.

lY. The riven palms.

y. The sole survivor,— the boy that ran.

YI. A specimen sepulchre in the cliff.

Until dark the native children have been playing
about us in the sea, diving for very smooth ^^ rials/' and
looking mach as frogs most look to wandering lilipn-
tians. The artist cares less for these wild and graceful
creatures than one would suppose, for he confesses them
equal in physical beauiy to the Italian models. AU
sentiment seemed to have been dragged out of him by
much traveL At night we sit together on the threshold
of our grass house, and not twenty feet from the rock —
under water only at high tide — ^where Cook died. We
sit talking far into the night, with the impressive silence
broken only by the plash of the sea at our very door.

By-and-by the moon looks down upon us from the
sepulchre of the kings. We are half clad, having
adopted the native costume as the twilight deepened
and our modesty permitted. The heat is still excessive.
All this low land was made to God's order some few
centuries ago. We wonder if He ever changes His
mind ; this came down red-hot from the hills yonder,
and cooled at high-water mark. It holds the heat like
an oven-brick, and we find it almost impossible to walk
upon it at noontime, even our sole-leather barely pre-
serving our feet from its blistering surface. The natives
manage to hop over it now and then ; they are about
half leather anyhow, and the other half appetite

THE LAST OF THE GREAT NA VIGATOR. i6i

We come first npon No. II. in the list of historic haunts.

Let us pass down to the rock, and cool ourselves in
the damp moss that drapes it. It is almost as large as
a dinner-table, and as level. You can wade all around
it, count a hundred little crabs running up and down
over the top of it. So much for one object of interest,
and the artist draws his pencil through it. At ten p.m.
we are still chatting, and have added a hissing pot of
coffee over some Kve coals to our housekeeping. Now
down a Kttle pathway at our right comes a native
woman, with a plump and tough sort of a pillow under
each arm. These she implores us to receive and be
comfortable. We refuse to be comforted in this fashion,
we despise luxuries, and in true cosmopolitan indepen-
dence hang our heads over our new saddle-trees, and
sleep heavily in an atmosphere rank with the odour of
fresh leather ; but not till we have seen our human visitor
part of the way home. Back by the steep and winding
path we three pass in silence. She pauses a moment in the
moonlight at what seems a hitching-post cased in copper.
It is as high as our hip, and has some rude lettering ap-
parently scratched with a nail upon it. We decipher
with some difficulty this legend : —

Near this spot fell
CAPTAIN JAMBS COOK, B.N.,

the

Renowned Circnmnavigatori

who

discovered these islands,

A.D. 1778.

His Majesty's Ship

Imogene,

Oct 17, 1837.

162 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

So No. I. of our list is checked off^ and no lives lost.

^^ Aloha /^^ cries a soft voice in the distance. Our
native woman has left us in onr pursuit of knowledge
under difficulties^ and now there is no visible trace of
her and her pillows, — only that voice out of the dark-
ness crying, " Love to you 1 " She lives in memory, —
this warm-hearted WaihiTie ; so do her pillows.

Returning to our lodgings, we discover a square heap
of broken lava rocks. It seems to be the foundation
for some building ; and such it is, for here the palace of
Kamehameha I. stood, — a palace of grass like this one
we are sleeping in. Nothing but the foundation re-
mains now. Half a dozen rude stairs invite the ghosts
of the departed courtiers to this desolate ruin.

They are all Samaritans in this kingdom. By sunrise
a boy with fresh coffise and a pail of muffins rides
swiftly to our door. He came from over the hill. Our
arrival had been reported, and we are sunmioned to a
late breakfast in the manner of the Christians. We
are glad of it. Our fruit diet of yesterday, the horrors
of a night in the saddle — ^a safe and pretty certain mode
of dislocating the neck — ^makes us yearn for a good old-
fashioned meal. Horses are at our service. We mount
after taking our muffins and coffee in the centre of a
large and enthusiastic gathering of villagers. They
came to see us eat, and to fumble the artist's sketches,
and wonder at his amazing skill.

Up the high hill with the jolliest sun shining full in
our eyes, brushing the heavy and dew-fiUed foliage on
both sides of the trail, and under the thick webs spun
in the upper branches, looking like silver laces this
glorious morning, — on, till we reach the hillrtop.

THE LAST OF THE GREAT NA VIGATOR. 163

Here the gnide pauses and points his horse's nose
toward a rude corral* The horses seem to regard it
from habit^ — ^we scarcely with curiosity. A wall half
in ruins in the centre, rising from a heap of stones
tumbled together, a black, weather-stained cross, higher
than our heads as we sit in the saddle. It is the altar of
sacrifice. It is here that the heart of the great navi-
gator survived the flames.

No. III. scored off. At this rate we shall finish by noon
easily. The sequel of an adventurous life is soon told.

After breakfast, to horse again, and back to the little
village by the sea. We ride into a cluster of palms, our
guide leading the way, and find two together, each with
a smooth and perfectly round hole through its body
about three feet from the roots, made by the shot of
Cook's avengers. A lady could barely thrust her hand
through them ; they indicate rather light calibre for
defence nowadays, but enough to terrify these little
villages, when Cook's men sent the balls hissing over
the water to bite through the grit and sap of these
slender shafts. They still live to tell the tale in their
way. So much for No. IV.

We pause again in the queer little straggling alleys of
the village, planned, I should think, after some spider's
web. They are about as regular in their irregularity.
It is No. V. this time. A bit of withered humanity
doubled up in the sun, as though some one had set him
on that wall to bake. He is drawn all together ; his
chin sunk in between his knees, his knees hooped
together with his dreadfully slim arms, a round head,
sleek and shining as an oiled gourd ; sans teeth ; eyes
like the last drops in desert wells ; the skeleton sharply

i64 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

quick and protruding ; no motion ; apparently no Kfe
beyond the incessant blinking of the eyelids, — the curtains
fluttering in the half-shut windows of the soul. Is it a
man and a brother ? Yes, verily I When the uncaptured
crew of the " Resolution " poured their iron shot into
the tents of the adversary, this flickering life was young
and vigorous, and he ran like a good fellow. Better to
have died in his fiery youth than to have slowly
withered away in this fashion. For here is the phi-
losophy of mammon left to itself : when you get to be
an old native, it is your business to die ; if you don't
know your business, you are left to find it out : what
are you good for but to bury ?

Let us slip over the smooth bay, for we must look
into one of these caverns. Cross in this canoe, so
narrow that we cannot get into it at all, but balance
ourself on its rim and hold our breath for fear of
upsetting. These odd-looking outriggers are honest
enough in theory, but treacherous in practice ; and a
shark has his eye on us back yonder. Sharks are
mesmeric in their motions through the water, and
corpse-coloured.

A new guide helps us to the most easily reached cave,
and with ihe lad and his smoking torch we dimb into
the dusky mouth.

There is dust everywhere, and cobwebs as thick as
cloth, hanging in tatters. An almost interminable
series of small cells, just high enough to straighten
one's back in, leads us farther and farther into the
mountain of bones. This cave has been pillaged too
pften to be very ghostly now. We find a little parcel
of bones here. It might have been a hand and an arm

THE LAST OF THE GREAT NAVIGATOR, 165

once^ cunning and dexterous. It is nothing now but a
litter. Here is an infant's skull, but broken, thin and
delicate as a sea-shell, and full of dust. Here is a
tougher one, whole and solid ; the teeth well set and
very white ; no signs of decay in any one of these
molars. Perhaps it is because so Uttle of their food is
^ven warm when they eat it. This rattles as we lift it.
The brain and the crumbs of earth are inseparably
wedded. Come with us, skulL You look scholarly,
and shall Ue upon our desk, — ^a solemn epistle to the
living. But the cave is filled with the vile smoke of our
torch, and we are choked with the heat and dust. Let
US out as soon as possible. The Great Navigator's
skeleton cannot be hidden in this tomb. Down we
scramble into the sand and shadow by the water, and
talk of departing out of this place of relics.

We are to cross the lava southward where it is frescoeii
with a wilderness of palm-trees : for when the mountain
came down to the sea, flowing red-hot, but cooling
almost instantly, it mowed down the forests of palms,
and the trunks were not consumed, but lay half buried
in the cooling lava, and now you can mark every
delicate fibre of the bark in the lava, as firm as granite^

Still farther south lies the green slope that was so
soon to be shaken to its foundations. I wonder if we
could discover any of the peculiar loveliness that
bewitched us the evening we crossed it in silence.
There was something in the air that said, "Peace,
peace " ; and we passed over the fatal spot without
speaking. But the sea spoke under the clifis below us,
and the mountain has since replied.

This place is named prettily, KealekakvAX. You see

i66 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

that mountain ? There are paths leading to it. Hiither
the gods journeyed in the days of old. So the land is
called " the path of the gods."

It is a cool, green spot up yonder ; the rain descends
upon it in continual baptism. The natives love these
mountains and the sea. They are the cardinal points
of their compass. Every direction given you is either
toward the mountain or toward the sea.

Here is much truth in the Arabian tale, and it is
time to acknowledge it. Mountains are magnetia The
secret of their magnetism may lie in the immobility of
their countenances. Praise them to their face, and they
are not flattered ; forget them for a moment : but turn
again, and see their steadfast gaze I You feel their ear-
nestness. It is imposing, and you cannot think lightly
of it. Who forgets the mountains he has once seen ?
It is quite probable the mountain cares little for your
individuality : but it has given part of itself to the
modelling of your character ; it has touched you with
the wand of its enchantment ; you are under the spell.
Somewhere in the recesses of this mountain are locked
the bones of the Great Navigator, but these mountains
have kept the secret.

A OANOB CRUISE IN THE CORAL SEA. J

I

;r you can buy a canoe for two calico
shirts, what will your annual expenses in
Tahiti amount to? This was a mental
problem I concluded to solve, and, having
invested my two shirts, I began the solution in this
wise : My slender Kttle treasure lay with half its length
on shore, and being quite big enough for two, I looked
about me, seeking some one to sit in the bows, for com-
pany and ballast.

Up and down the shady beach of Papeete I wan-
dered, with this advertisement written all over my
anxious face : —

" WANTED— A crew about ten years of age; of a mild dis-
position, and with no special fondness for human flesh; not
particular as to sex! Apply immediately, at the new canoe,
nnder the bread-fruit tree, Papeete, South Pacific."

Some young things were pitching French coppers so
earnestly they didn't read my face ; some were not sea-
faring at that moment ; while most of them evidently
ate more than was good for them, which might result
disastrously in a canoe cruise, and I set my heart against
them. The afternoon was waning, and my ill-luck
seemed to urge upon me the necessity of my constituting

i68 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

a temporary press-gang for the kidnapping of the re-
quired article.

" Who is amdons to go to sea with me ? " I shouted,
revisiting the mob of young gamblers, all intently dis-
interested in everything but " pitch and toss." Not far
away a group of wandering minstrels — such as make
musical the shores of Tahiti — sat in the middle of the
street, chanting. One youth played with considerable
skill upon a joint of bamboo, of the flute species, but
breathed into from the nostrils, instead of the lips.
Three or four minor notes were piped at uncertain in-
tervals, playing an impromptu variation upon the air of
the singers. Drawing near, the music was suspended,
and I proposed shipping one of the melodious vaga-
bonds, whereupon the entire chorus expressed a willing-
ness to accompany me in any capacity whatever, re-
marking, at the same time, that " they were a body
bound, so to speak, by cords of harmony, and any pro-
posal to disband them would, by it, be regarded as
highly absurd." Then I led the solemn procession of
volunteers to my canoe, and we regarded it in silence ;
it was something larger than a pea-pod, to be sure, but
about the shape of one. After a moment of delibera-
tion, during which a great throng of curious spectators
had assembled, the orchestra declared itself in readiness
to ship before the paddle for the trifling consideration of
seventeen dollars. I knew the vague notion that money
is money, call it dollar or dime, generally entertained by
the innocent children of nature ; and, dazzling the un-
accustomed eyes of the flutist with a new two-franc
piece, he immediately embarked. The bereaved singers
sat on the shore and lifted up their voices in resounding

A CANOE CRUISE IN THE CORAL SEA. 169

discord, as the canoe sKd off into the still waters, and
my crew, with commendable fortitude, laid down the
nose-flute, took up the paddle, and we began our canoe
cruise.

The frail thing ghded over the waves as though invi-
sible currents were sweeping her into the hereafter; the
shore seemed to recede, drawing the low, thatched houses
into deeper shadow; other canoes skimmed over the sea,
like great water-bugs, while the sun set beyond the
sharp outlines of beautiful Morea, glorifying it and us.

There was a small islet not far away, — ^an islet as fair
and fragrant as a bouquet, — ^looking, just then, like a
mote in a sheet of flame. Thither I directed the re-
formed flutist, and then let myself relapse into the all-
embracing quietness that succeeds nearly every vexation
that flesh is heir to.

There was something soothing in the nature of my
crew. He sat with his back to me, — a brown back, that
glistened in the sun, and arched itself, from time to time,
cat-like, as though it was very good to be brown and
bare and shiny. From the waist to the feet feU the re-
splendent folds of a pareUy worn by all Tahitians, of
every possible age and sex, and consisted, in this case, of
a thin breadth of cloth, stamped with a deep blue fir-
mament, in which supematuraUy yellow suns were per-
petually setthng in several spots. A round head topped
his chubby shoulders, and was shaven from the neck to
the crown, with a matted forelock of the blackness of
darkness falling to the eyes and keeping the sun out of
ihem. One ear was enlivened with a crescent of beaten
gold, which decoration, having been won at " pitch and
toss," will probably never again, in the course of human

170 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

events, meet with its proper mate. On the whole, he
looked just a little hit like a fantail pigeon with its
wings plucked.

At this point, my crew suddenly rose in the bows of
the canoe, making several outlandish flourishes with his
broad paddle. I was about to demand the occasion of
his sudden insanity, when we began to grate over some
crumbling substance that materially impeded our pro-
gress and suggested all sorts of disagreeable sensations^
-such as knife-grinding in the next yard, saw-filing
round the comer, etc It was as though we were ca-
reering madly over a multitude of fine-tooth combs.
With that caution which is inseparable from canoe-
cruising in every part of the known world, I leaned
over the side of my personal property, and penetrated
the bewildering depths of the coral sea.

Were we, I asked myself, suspended about two feet
above a garden of variegated cauliflowers ? Or were
the elements wafting us over a minute winter-forest,
whose fragile boughs were loaded with prismatic crys-
tals?

The scene was constantly changing : now it seemed a
disordered bed of roses, — pink, and white, and orange ;
presently we were floating in the air, looking down
upon a thousand-domed mosque, pale in the glamour of
the Oriental moon ; and then a wilderness of bowers
presented itself, — ^bowers whose fixed leaves still seemed
to quiver in the slight ripple of the sea, — blossoming for
a moment in showers of buds, purple, and green, and
gold, but fading almost as soon as born. I could
scarcely believe my eyes, when these tiny, though marvel-
lously brilliant fish shot suddenly out from some lace-

A CANOE CRUISE IN THE CORAL SEA. 171

lite structure, each having the lurid and flame-like
beauty of sulphurous fire, and all turning instantly, in
sudden consternation at finding us so near, and secreting
themselves in the coral pavilion that amply sheltered
them. Among the deUcate anatomy of these frozen
ferns our light canoe was crashing on its way. I saw
the fragile structures overwhelmed with a single blow
from the young savage, who stood erect, propelling us
onward amid the general ruins. With my thumb and
finger I annihilated the laborious monuments of cen-
turies, and saw havoc and desolation in our wake.

There, in one of God's reef-walled and diff-sheltered
aquaria, we drifted, while the sky and sea were glowing
with the final triumphant gush of sunset radiance. Fefe
at last broke the silence, with an interrogation : " WeU,
how do you feel?" "Fefe," I replied, "I feel as
though I were some good and faithful bee, sinking into
a sphere of amber, for a sleep of a thousand years."
Fefe gave a deep-mouthed and expressive grunt, as he
laid his brown profile against the sunset sky, thereby
displaying his solitary earring to the best advantage, and
with evident personal satisfaction. " And how do you
feel, Fefe ? " I asked. He was mum for a moment ;
arched his back like any wholesome animal when the
sun has struck clean through it ; ejaculated an ejacula-
tion with his tongue and teeth that cannot possibly be
spelled in English, and thereupon his nostril quivered
spasmodically, and was only comforted by the immediate
application of his nose-flute, through which dulcet organ
he confessed his deep and otherwise unutterable joy. I
blessed him for it, though there were but three notes, all
told, and those minors and a trifle flat.

IT* SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

Fefe's impassioned soul haying subsided^ we bodi
looked over to beautifnl Morea, nine miles away. How
her peaks shone like steely and her vaUeys looked full oi
sleep I while here and there one golden raj lingered for
a moment to put the final touch to a fruit it was ripen-
ing or a flower it was painting, — ^for they each have
their perfect work aUotted to them, and they don't leave
it half completed.

It was just the hour that harmonizes everything in
nature, and when there is no possible discord in all the
universe. The fishes were baptizing themselves by im^
mersion in space, and kept leaping into the air, like
momentary inches of chain-lightning. Our islet swam
before us, spiritualized, — suspended, as it were, above
the sea, — ready at any moment to fade away. The
waves had ceased beating upon the reef ; the dear, low
notes of a bell vibrating from the shore called us to
prayer. Fefe knew it, and was ready, — so was I, — ^and
with bare heads and souls utterly at peace we gave our
hearts to God — ^for the time being I

Then came the hum of voices and the rustle of re-
newed life. On we pressed towards our islet, under the
increasing shadows of the dusk. A sloping beach
received us ; the young cocoa-palms embraced one an-
other with fringed branches. Hirough green and end-
less corridors we saw the broad disc of the full moon
hanging above the hill.

Fefe at once chose a palm, and, having ascended to its
summit, cast down its fruit. Descending, he planted a
stake in the earth, and striking a nut against its sharp-
ened top, soon laid open the fibrous husk^ with which a
fire was kindled.

A CANOE CRUISE IN THE CORAL SEA, 173

Taking two peeled nuts in his hands, he struck one
against the other and laid open the skull of it, — ^a clear
sort of scalping that aroused me to enthusiasm. There
is one end of a cocoanut's skull as delicate as a baby's,
and a well-directed tap does the business ; possibly the
same result would follow with those of infants of the
right age, — ^twins, for instance. Fefe agrees with me in
this theory now first given to the public.

Then followed much talk, on many topics, over our
tropical supper, — said supper consisting of seaweed
salad, patent self-stuffing banana-sausages, and cocoanut
hash. We argued somewhat, also, but in South Pacific
fashion, — ^which would surely spoil if imported; I only
remember, and will record, that Fefe regarded the nose-
flute as a triumph of art, and considered himself no
novice in musical science, as apphcable to nose-flutes in
a land where there is scarcely a nose without its par-
ticular flute, and many a flute is silent for ever, because
its special nose is laid among the dust.

Having eaten, I proposed sleeping on the spot, and
continuing the cruise at dawn. " Why should we return
to the world and its cares, when the sea invites us to its
isles? Nature will feed us. In that blest land, clothing
has not yet been discovered. Let us away 1 " I cried.
At this juncture, voices came over the sea to us, — ^voices
chanting like sirens upon the shore. Instinctively
Fefe's nose-flute resumed its tremolo, and I knew the
day was lost " Oome I " said the little rascal, as though
he were captain and I the crew, and he dragged me
toward the skiff. With terrific emphasis, I commanded
him to desist. " Don't imagine," I said, " that this is
a modem " Bounty," and that it is your duty to rise up in

174 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

matiny for the sake of dramatic jastioe. Nature never
repeats herself, therefore come back to camp I "

But he wooldnH come. I knew I shonld lose my
canoe unless I followed, or should have to paddle back
alone, — ^no easy task for one unaccustomed to it. So I
moodily embarked with him; and having pushed off
into deep water, he sounded a note of triumph that was
greeted with shouts on shore^ and I felt that my &te
was sealed.

It had been my life-dream to bid adieu to the human
family, with one or two exceptions; to sever every tie
that bound me to anything under the sun ; to live
close to Nature, trusting her, and getting trusted by
her.

I explained all this to the young " Kanack," who was
in a complete state of insurrection, but failed to subdue
him. Overhead the air was flooded with hazy moon-
light; the sea looked like one immeasurable drop of
quicksilver, and upon the summit of this luminous sphere
our shallop was mysteriously poised. A faint wind was
breathing over the ocean; Fefe erected his paddle in
the bows, placed against it a broad mat that constituted
part of my outfit for that new life of which I was
defrauded, and on we sped like a belated sea-bird seek-
ing its mossy nest.

Beneath us slept the infinite creations of another
world, gleaming from the dark bosom of the sea with
an unearthly paflor, and seeming to reveal something of
the forbidden mysteries that lie beyond the grave. " La
Petite Pologne," whispered Fefe, as he arched his back
for the last time, and stepped on shore at the foot of
this singular rendezvous, — a narrow lane threadong the

A CANOE CRUISE IN THE CORAL SEA, 175

groves of Papeete, bordered by wine-shops, bakeries,
and a convent-wall, lit at night by smoky lanterns hang-
ing motionless in the dead air of the town, and thronged
from 7 p.m. till 10 p.m. by people from all quarters of
the globe.

Fefe having resumed his profession as soon as his
bare foot was on his native heath again^ the minstrels
moved in a hollow square through the centre of La
Petite Pologne. They were rendering some Tahitian
madrigal, — a three-part song, the solo, or first part, of
which being got safely through with, — a single stanza, —
it was repeated as a duo, and so re-repeated through
simple addition with a gradually increasing chorus; the
nose-flute meantime getting dehrious, and sounding its
fi^nale in an ecstasy prolonged to the point of strangula-
tion, when the whole unceremoniously terminated, and
everybody took a rest and a fresh start. During these
performances, the audience was dense and demonstrative.
Fefe was in his element, sitting with his best side to the
public, and flaunting his earring mightily. A dance
followed: a dance always follows in that land of light
hearts ; and as one after another was ushered into the
arena and gave his or her body to the interpretation of <
such songs as would startle Christian ears, — ^albeit there
be some Christian hearts less tender, and Christian Kps
less true, — ^to my surprise, Fefe abandoned his piping
and danced before me, and then came a flash of intuition^
— rather late, it is true, but still useful as an explanatory
supplement to my previous vexations. "Fefel" I
gasped (Fefe is the Tahitian for Elephantiasia), and mj
Fefe raised his or her skirts, and danced with a shock-
ing leg. I really can't tell you what Fefe was. You

176 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

never can tell by the name. He might have been a
boy, or she might have been a girl, all the time. I
don't know that it makes any particular difference to
me what it was, but I cannot encourage elephantiasis in
anything, and therefore I concluded my naval engage-
ment with Fefe, and solemnly walked toward my cham-
ber, scarcely a block off. The music followed me to my
door with a song of some kind or other, but the real
nature of which I was too sensitive to definitely ascer-
tain.

GkLzelle-eyed damsels, with star-flowers dangling from
their ears, obstructed the way. The gendarmes regarded
me with an eye single to France and French principles.
Mariners arrayed in the blue of their own sea and the
whito of their own breakers bore down upon us with
more than belonged to them. Men of all colours went
to and fro, like mad creatures; women followed; children
careered hither and thither. Wild shouts rent the air;
there was an intoxicating element that enveloped all
things. The street was by no means straight, though
it could scarcely have been narrower; the waves stag-
gered up the beach, and reeled back again; the moon
leered at us, looking blear-eyed as she leaned against
a doud; and half-nude bodies lay here and there in dark
comers, steeped to the toes in rum. Out of this human
maelstrom, whose fatal tide was beginning to sweep me
on with it, I made a plunge for my door-knob and
caught it. Twenty besetting sins sought to follow me,
covered with wreaths and fragrant with sandalwood oil;
twenty besetting sins rather pleasant to have around
one^ because by no means as disagreeable as they should
be. Fefe was there also, and I turned to address him a

A CANOE CRUISE IN THE CORAL SEA. 177

parting word, — a word calculated to do its work in a
soil particularly mellow.

" Fefe," I said, " how can I telp regarding it as a
dispensation of Providence that your one leg is con-
siderably bigger than your other ? How can I expect
you, with your assorted legs, to walk in that straight
and narrow way wherein I have frequently found it
inconvenient to walk myself, to say noticing of the sym-
metry of my own extremities ? Therefore, adieu, child
of the South, with your one earring and your pianoforte
leg; adieu — ^for ever."

With that I closed my door upon the scene, and strove
to bury myself in oblivion behind the white window-
shade. In vain: the shadow with the moustache and
goatee still pursued the shadow with the flowing locks
that fled too slowly. Voices faint, though audible,
indulged in allusions more or less profane, and with a
success which would be considered highly improper in
any latitude.

Thus sinking into an unquiet sleep, with a dream of
canoe-cruising in a coral sea, whose pellucid waves sang
sadly upon the remote shores of an ideal sphere, across
the window loomed the gigantic shadow of some brown
beauty, whose vast proportions suggested nothing more
lovely than a new Sphinx^ with a cabbage in either ear.

12

UNDER A GRASS ROOF.

A IMAW TOKK AT BJLITDOM TBOM A TROPICAL KOTB-BOOK.

T Kahakoloa, under a terrific hill and close
upon a frothing tongue of the sea, I draw
rein. The act is simply a formality of
mine ; probably the animal would hare
paused here of his own fr«e will, for he has been rehears-
ing his stops a whole hour back, during which time he
limped somewhat and reaped determinedly the few tufts
of dry grass that Nature had provided him by the trail-
side. The clouds are falling ; the clifis are festooned
vrith damp gauze! ; the air is moist and cool ; a grass
hut of uncommon purity stands invitingly by. A moon-
faced youth, whose spotless garments appealed to me as
he overtook our caravan a mile back, says, " Will you
eat and sleep ? " I am but human, and a hungry and
sleepy human at that; so I tip off from my mule's back
with gratitude and alacrity. In a moment the fine linen
of mine host is hung upon its peg, and a good study of
the Nude returns to me for further orders. I am lite-
rally famishing, and the mule is already up to his ears in
watercress; but then I have ridden and he has carried
me. How just, Mother Nature, are thy judgments 1

UADER A GRASS ROOF. 179

With the superb poses of a trained athlete, the Nade
swings a fowl by the neck, and shortly it is plucked and
potted, together with certain vegetables of the proper
affinities. Then he swathes a fish in succulent leaves^
and buries it in hot ashes; and then he smokes his
peace-pipe. Pipe no sooner lighted than mouths mys-
teriously gather : five, ten, a dozen of them magically
assemble at the smell of smoke and take their turn at
the curled shell, with a hollow stalk for a mouthpiece.
Dinner at last. fish, fruit, and fowl on a mat on a
floor in a grass hut at evening! How excellent are
these — amen I Night — supper over — some one twanging
upon a stringed instrument of rude native origin. Gos-
sip lags, — darkness and silence, and a cigarette. The
Nude rises haughtily and lights a lamp that looks very
like a diminutive coffee-pot with a great flame in the
nose of it. He hangs it against a beam already black-
ened with smoke to the peak of the roof. Again the
peace-pipe sweeps the home-circle, and is passed out to
the mouths of the neighbourhood.

Guests drop down upon us and fill the one aperture
of the hut with rows of curious, welcoming faces; as-
sorted dogs press through the door in turn, receive a
slap from each member of the family, and retreat with
invisible tails; sudden impulses set all tongues wagging
in unison; impulses, equally sudden and unaccountable,
enjoin protracted intervals of silence. The sea breathes
heavily; there is a noise of rain-drops sliding down the
thatch. Guests disperse with a kind " alohas We are
alone with the night. The spirit of repose descends
upon us; one after another the several members of mine
host's household roll themselves into mummies and lie

i8o SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

in a solemn row along the side of the room, sleeping
I, also, will sleep. A great bark-doth (kapa) that rattles
as though it had received seven starchings, is all mine
for covering, — a royal kapa this, of exceeding stifihess.
I lie with my eyes to the roof, and count the beams that
look like an arbour. What is it, as large as my thumb,
cased in brown armour ? A roach I — a melancholy pro-
cession of roaches passing from one side of the hut, over
the roof, with their backs downward, and descending
on the other side by the beams, — ^a hundred of them,
perhaps, or a thousand: the cry is, " Still they come ! "
There is a noise of tiny feet upon the roof, and it isn't
rain; there is a sound as of falling objects that escape
before I can catch them. My hand rests upon a cool,
moist creature that writhes under it, — an animated
spinal column with four legs at one end of it. Away,
thou slimy newt! Something runs over the matting,
making a still, small clatter as it goes, — something look-
ing Uke a toy train of dirt-cars. Ha I the venomous
and wily centipede ! Put out the coffee-pot, for these
sights are horrible I

Now I will sleep with my face under the kapa, —
silence, serene silence, and darkness profound ; the sea
beating in agony at the foot of the big hill, — ^a time for
lofty and sublime revery. More rain outside the hut ;
gusts of wind, wailing as they rush past us. Thanks
for this shelter. My pillow saturated with cocoa-nut
oil — ah, what savage dreams may have disturbed these
sleepers 1 No matter. Will get a wink of sleep
before daybreak. Sleep, at last, — ^how refreshing art
thou I

Hello I the coffee-pot in ablaze again ; the Nude

UNDER A GRASS ROOF. t8i

smoking his peace-pipe ; children eating and making
merry. Daybreak? No; midnight, perchance, — dark-
ness without, darkness once more (by request) within.
"Come again, bright dream." Horror I the house
shaken as by an earthquake ; gnashing of teeth dis-
tinctly audible, — ^the mule undoubtedly eating up the
side of the grass hut I Anon, quiet restored. A sug-
gestion of moonlight through the open doorj the
twanging of the stringed affair ; a responsive twang in
the distance. Some one steals cautiously forth into the
starUght. All is not well in Kahakuloa. Rain over ;
mule vegetating elsewhere ; roaches subdued ; sea com-
paratively quiet. Welcome, kind Nature's sweet re-
storer ! , . . Humming of voices ; rolling of dogs
about the house ; ditto of children ditto ; broad day-
light, and breakfast waiting. Mule saddled, and, with
a mouthful of roses, looking fresh and happy. Mule-
boy eager for the fray. Time up. Adieu, adieu —
beautiful Kahakuloa I I must away.

Above the terrible hill hang clouds and shadows ;
fringes of rain obscure the trail as it climbs persist-
ently to heaven ; but up that trail, into and through
those clouds and shadows, I pursue my solitary pil-
grimage.

MY SOUTH-SEA SHOW.

IGH in her lady's chamber sat Gafl, looking
with cabn eyes through the budding ma-
ples across the hills of spring. Her letter
was but half finished, and the village post

was even then ready ; so she woke out of her reverie,

and ended the writing as follows : —

" Spring, .

"I know not where you may be at this moment, — ^living with
what South-Sea Island god, drinking the milk of cocoa-nut,
and eating bread-fruit, — ^but wherever you are, forget not your
promise to come home again, bringing your sheaves with you."

Anon she sealed it and mailed it, and it was hurried
away, over land and sea, till, after many days, it found
me drinking my cocoa-milk and refreshing myself with
bread-fruits.

Anon I replied to her, not on the green enamel of a
broad leaf, with a thorn stylet, but upon the blank mar-
gins of Gail's letter, with my last half-inch of pencil I
said to her: —

Summer, .

*' By-and-by I will come to you, when the evenings are very
long, and the valley is still. I will cross the lawn in silence, and
stand knocking at the south entiy. Deborah will open the door

MY SOUTH-SEA SHOW. 183

to me with fear and trembling, for I shall be sunburnt and
brawny, with a baby cannibal under each arm. Then at a word
a tattooed youngster shall reach her a Tahitian pearl, and I will
cry 'Give it to Mistress Gail'; whereat Deborah will willingly
¥dthdraw, leaving me motionless in the dead leaves by the south
entry. You will take the token, dear Grail, and know it as the
symbol of, my return. Tou will come and greet us, and lead us
to the best chamber, and we will feast with you as long as you
like, — ^I and my cannibals.''

I was never quite sure of what Gail said to my letter,
but I knew her for a true soul ; so I gathered my can-
nibals under my metaphorical wings, and journeyed
unto the village, and came into it at sunset, while it was
autumn. We passed over the lawn in silence, and stood
knocking at the south entry, in real earnest. Deborah
came at last, and the little striped fellow bore aloft his
pearl of Tahitian beauty, while I gave my message, and
Deborah was terrified and thought she was dreaming.
But she took the pearl and went, and we stood in the
keen air of autumn, and jo^ South Sea babies were very
cold and moaned pitifully under my arms, and the little
pearl-bearer shivered in all his stripes, and capered in
the dead leaves like an imp of darkness.

Then GUul came to us and let us in, and we c^^mped
by the great fire in the sitting-room, whither Deborah
brought bowls of new milk for the little ones, and was
wonderfully amazed at their quaintness and beauty, but
quite failed to affiliate with my striped pearl-bearer.

So I said, "Sit you down, Deborah, and hear the
true story of my Zebra." Gail had already captured the
bronze babies, and was helping them with their bowls
of milk as they nestled at her feet ; and I took my
striped beauiy between my knees, and stroked his soft

l84 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

wool, and told how he saved me from a watery death,
and again from the fiery stake, and was doubly dear to
me for evermore : —

" We were at the island of Pottobokee, getting water
and fruit ; had stacked the last sack of mangoes and
limes in the boat, and were off for the ship, glad to
escape with our scalps, when a wave took us amidships
on the reef, and we swamped in the dreadful spume.
Some were drowned; some clung to the boat, though it
was stove badly, while relief came from the vessel as
quickly as possible, and the fragments were gathered
out of the waves and taken aboard.

" They thought themselves lucky to escape with the
remnants, for they knew the natives for cannibals, and
the shore was black and noisy within ten minutes after
the accident It looked stormy in that neighbourhood :
hence the caution and haste of the relief-crew, who left
me for drowned, I suppose, as they never came after me,
but spread everything, and wetot out of sight before
dark that evening.

^^ I was no swimmer at all, but I kicked well, and
was about diving the fatal dive, — ^last of three warnings
that seem providentially allotted the luckless soul in \is
extremity : I was just upon the third sinking, when a
tough little arm gripped me under the breast, and I
hung over it limp and senseless, knowing nothing fur-
ther of my dehverance, until I found myself a captive
in Kabala-kum, — a heathenish sort of paradise, a little
way back from the sea-coast.

" The natives had given up all hope of feasting upon
me, for there wasn't a respectable steak in my whole
carcase, nor was my appetite promising; so they resolved

MY SOUTH-SEA SHOW, 185

to make a bonfire of me, to get me out of the way.
But that tough little arm that saved me from an early
grave in the water was husband to a tough little heart,
that resolved I shouldn't be burnt. I was his private
and personal property ; he had fished me out of the
sea ; he would cook me in his own style when he got
ready, and no one else was to have a word in the
matter.

" There he showed his royal blood, Deborah, for he
was the King's son: this marvellous tattooing proclaims*
his rank. Only the noble and brave are permitted to
brand these rainbows into their brown skins.

" I was almost frightened when I first returned to
consciousness, and saw this little fellow pawing me in
his tender and affectionate way. He was lithe as a
panther, and striped all over with brilliant and change-
less stripes ; so I called him my boy Zebra, and I sup-
pose he called me his white mouse, or something of that
sort.

" Well, he saved me at all events ; and having heard
something of you and Gail from me, he wanted to see
you very much, and we made our escape together,
though he had to sacrifice all his bone-jewelry, and lots
of skulls and scalps : and here he is, and you must Uke
him, Deborah, because he is a little heathen, and doesn't
go to sabbath-school, as a general thing, and worships
idols very badly."

Deborah did me the compliment to absorb a tear in
the broad hem of her apron, at the conclusion of my
episode, whereat my beautiful Zebra regarded her in
utter amazement, then turned his queer face — ringed,
streaked, and striped — up t-o mine, and laughed his bar-

l86 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

baric laugh. He was wonderful to see, with his breast
like a pigeon ; his round, supple, almost voluptuous
limbs, peculiar to his amphibious tribe ; his head
crowned with a turban of thick wool, so fine and flossy,
it looked as though it had been carded: it stood two
inches deep at a tangent from his oval pate.

From his woolly crown to the soles of his feet, my
Zebra was frescoed in the most brilliant Mid artistic
fashion. Every colour under the sun seemed pricked
into his skin (there he discounted the zebras, who are
limited in their combinations of light and shade) : this,
together with the multiplicity of figures therein
wrought, was a never-failing joy to me. my Zebra !
how did you ever grow so splendid off yonder in the
South Seas?

We chatted that evening by Gail's fire, till my Zebra's
wholly head went dean to the floor, and he looked like
some prostrate idol about to be immolated on that
Christian hearth ; and the baby cannibals were as
fanny as two Uttle brown rabbits, with their ears
clipped, nestling at Gail's patient feet.

It was ftiUy nine o'clock by this time, so Deborah
got the Bible, smoothed out her apron, and opened it
thereon, while she read a chapter. We sat by the fire
and listened. I heard the earnest voice of the reader,
while the autumn winds rose in gusts, and puffed out
the curtains now and then. I thought of the chilly
nights and frosty mornings w<^ were to endure, — we
eddies of the South. I thought of the snows that were
to follow, and of the Uttle idolaters sleeping through
the gospel, with deaf ears, while their hearts panted
high in some dream of savage joy.

MY SOUTH-SEA SHOW, 187

There was a big bed made upon the floor of my room,
— the best chamber at Gail's, — and there I laid out my
little peto, tucking them in with infinite concern ; for
they looked so like three diminutive dummies, as they
lay there, that I did not know whether they would
think it worth while to wake up again in life ; and
what should 1 be worth then, without my wild boys ?
I, who was bom, by some mischance, out of my tro-
pical element, and whose birthright is Polynesia ! Gail
laughed when she saw me fretting so, and she patted
the curly heads of the babies, and stroked the Zebra's
shaggy pate, and said "Good-night" to us, as her
step measured the hall, and a door closed in the dis-
tance ; whereupon, instead of freezing in the icy linen
of the spare bed at the other end of the room, I crept
softly into the nest of the cannibals, and we slept Uke
kittens until morning.

At a seasonable hour the next days, I got my jewels
— my little inhuman jewels — into their thick, winter
clothes again, and we trotted down to breakfest, as
hungry as bears. Deborah was good enough to em-
brace both the little ones, but she gave the Zebra a wide
berth, and was not entirely satisfied at leaving him
loose in the house.

He was rather odd-looking, I confess. He used to
curl up under the table and go to sleep, at all hours of
the day, — I think it was tiie cold weather that en-
couraged him in it, — stretching himself, now and then,
like a spaniel, and showing his sharp saw-teeth in a
queer way, when he laughed in his dreams. Presently
Gail came in, and we sat at table, and came near to
eating her out of house and home. Deborah said

iS8 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

grace, — rather a long one, considering we were so
hungry, — a grace in which my babies were not for-
gotten, and the Zebra was made the subject of a special
prayer. To my horror Zebra was helping himself surrep-
titiously to the nearest dish, the while. It was a merry
meal I rose in the midst of it, and laid before Grail an
enormous placard, printed in as many colours as even
the Zebra could boast, and Gail read it out to Deborah :

JENKINS' HALL.
IMMENSE ^TTR^CTIONl

FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY/

HOKY AND POKY,

▲ BRAOB OF 80UTH-SBA BABIEB, TROU THB ANCIENT BIVEBS

OF KABALA-KUM,

— ^AND —

THE WONDERFUL BOY
ZEBRA,

A CANNIBAL FMNCE FROM THB PALMT PLAINB OF FOTTOBOKBB,

IN THEIR GRAND MORAL DIVERSION,

09^ The first and only opportunity is now afforded the great public

to obaenre with safety how the heathen, in his blindness,

bows down to wood and stone.

0V These are the only original and genuine representatives of the

KabalakumiBts and Pottobokees that ever left

their coral strand.

iLDMISSION, . ChILDBEN, HaLF PrICB.

Deborah was awed into silence, and Gail was ap-
parently thinking over the possible result of this strange
advertisement, for she said nothing, but took deliberate
sips of coffee, and broke the dry toast between her
fingers, while she looked at all four of us savages in a
peculiar and ominous manner. Nothing was said, how-

AfV SOUTH-SEA SHOW. 189

ever, to disparage any further announcement of the
entertainment ; and, having appeased our hunger, we
adjourned to the reading of another chapter, during
which the South Sea babies would play cat's-cradles
under Gail's writing-table, and the Zebra put his foot
into the middle of her work-basket, and was very
miserable indeed.

I was as full of work as could be. As an imprea^
sario I had to rush about all day, mustering the Great
Public for the evening. Out I went, full of it, while the
bronze midgets were left in charge of Gail and Deborah,
and the Zebra was locked in an upper room, with
plenty to eat, and no facilities for getting into mischief.
I saw the leading men in town : the preacher, who was
deeply interested, proposing to take up a collection on
the next sabbath, for our benefit, — ^which proposition I
received with graceful acquiescence peculiarly my own ;
the professor, at the Seminary, who was less affable,
but whose pupils were radiant at the prospect of getting
into the cannibals at reduced rates ; and the editor, who
desired to print full biographies of myself and canni-
bals, with portraits and facsimile of autographs. He
strongly urged the plausibiKty of this new method of
winning the heart of the Great Public, and was willing
to take my note for thirty days, in consideration of his
personal friendship for me, and his sympathy, as a
public man and a member of the press, with the show
business.

Everything worked so nicely that it really seemed
quite providential that I had come, as I had, like any-
thing in the night, — noiseless and unheralded. Every-
thing was in good order, and, after our late dinner, I

190 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

went oat again^ to finish for the evemng, — ^portioning
off my charges, as before, and retaming, at the last
moment, to bring them up to the hall for their dihut.
But judge of my horror at finding my Zebra stretched
upon the floor of his room, qoite insensible ; and all
this time Jenkins's Hall was thronged with the Great
Public, who had come to see us bow down to wood
and stone.

I was greatly alarmed. What could this sudden
attack mean ? He was not subject to disorders of that
nature, — at least, I had never seen him in a similar
condition. The little fellows began to cry in their
peculiar fashion, which is simply raising the voice to the
highest and shrillest pitch, and then shaking to an un-
limited degree. Gail was by no means charmed at
these new developments, and Deborah fled from the
room. In a moment the cause of our trouble was dis-
^ closed. Quil's cologne bottles were exhumed from
under the bed — but quite empty. Their contents had
been imbibed by the Zebra in an extemporaneous bac-
chanalian festival, tendered to himself by himself, in
honour of the occasion.

It was useless to borrow further trouble, so I pre-
pared my apology : " The sudden indisposition peculiar
to young cannibals during the early stages of a public
and Christian career had quite prostrated the represen-
tative from many a palmy plain ; and the South Sea
babies would endeavour to fill the vacancy caused by his
absence with several new and interesting features not
set down in the bills.'*

I was most cordially received by the audiences, and
the littie midgets danced their weird and fantastic

MY SOUTH'SEA SHOW. 191

dances, in the least possible clothing imaginable, and
sang their love-lyrics, and chanted their passionate war-
chants, and gave the faneral wail in a manner that re-
flected the highest credit upon their respective South
Sea papas and mammas. I considered it an entire
success, and pocketed the proceeds with considerable
satisfaction.

But to return to my poor little Zebra. His cologne-
spree had been quite too much for him. He was mentally
and physically demoralized, and could be of no use to
me, professionally, for a week, at least. I at once saw
this, and as I had two or three engagements during
that time, I begged Ghtil to allow him to remain with
her during his convalescence, while I went on with the
babes and fulfilled my engagements. She consented.
Deborah also promised to be very good to him. I think
she took a deeper interest in him when she found how
very human he was — a fact she did not fully realize until
he took to drinking.

On we went, through three little villages, in three
little valleys, with crowded houses every evening. De-
lighted and enthusiastic audiences wanted the midgets
passed around, just as we passed the bone fish-hooks
and shark' s-teeth combs, for inspection.

About this time I received a short and decisive epistle
from Gail, — an inunediate summons home. The Zebra^
in an unwatched moment, had got into the kerosene, ^
and was considered no longer a welcome guest at Quil's.
Deborah was praying with him daily, which didn't
seem to have the desired effect, for he was growing
worse and worse every hour.

There were at least seven towns anxiously awaiting

192 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

my Souih-Sea Lectare, with the ^^ heathen in his blind-
ness ** attachment. Yet it was out of the question to
think of pressing on in my tour, thereby sacrificing my
poor Zebra, and possibly Gail as welL I feared it was
already too late to save him, for I knew the nature of
his ailment, and foresaw the almost inevitable result.
When we returned, Qtiil met us with tears in her eyes,
and furrows of care foreshadowed in her face. I felt
how great a responsibility I had shifted upon her shoul-
ders, and accused myself roundly for such selfishness.
The babes rushed into her arms with the first impulse of
love, and refused to allow her out of their sight again
for some hours.

Deborah was, even then, wrestling with the angels
up in Zebra's room, and I waited until she came down,
with her eyes red and swollen, — a bottle of physic in
one hand and a Bible in the other ; then I went in to
my poor, thin, shadowy little Zebra, who was wild-eyed
and nervous, and scarcely knew me at first, but went off
into hysterics the moment he found me out, to make up
for it. He had had no opportuniiy of speaking to any
one, save in his broken English, for several days, and
he rushed into a torrent of ejaculations so violent and
conftising that I was thoroughly alarmed at his condi-
tion. Presently he grew quieter, from sheer exhaus-
tion, and then I learned how he had taken Deborah's
well-intended efforts toward his spiritual conversion.
He believed her praying hvm to death ! Deborah knew
nothing of the sensitive organism of these islanders.
When moved by a spirit of revenge, they threaten one
another with prayers. Incantations are performed and
sacrifices offered, under which fearful spells the un-

MY SOUTH'SEA SHOW. 193

happy victim of revenge cannot think of surviving. So
he lies down and dies, without pain, or any effort on
his part ; and all your physic is like so much water,
administer it in what proportions you choose.

I went into the garden, where I saw Gail under the
maples, — ^the very maples that were budding in pink
and white when she wrote me the letter bidding me
come out of the South, bringing my sheaves with me.
The animated sheaves were even then swinging on the
clothes-hnes, and taking life easily. " Gail," I said,
" Gail, the Zebra is a dead boy 1 " Gail was shocked,
and silent. I told her how useless, how hopeless it was
to think of saving him. All the doctors and all the
medicine in the world were a fallacy where the soul was
overshadowed with a malediction. " Gtiil," I said,
^^that Zebra says he wants to be an angel, and he
couldn't possibly have decided upon anything more un-
reasonable than this. What shall I do without my
Zebra ? " And I walked off by myself, and felt despe-
rately, while Gail was wrapped in thought, and the babes
continued to do inexpressible things on the clothes-lines,
to the intense admiration of three small boys on the
other side of the garden-fence.

The doctor had already been called, and the physic
that Deborah carried about with her was a legitimate
draught prescribed by him. Little did he know of the
death-angel that walks hand-in-hand with a superstition
as antique as Mount Ararat. So day by day the little
Zebra grew more and more slender, till his frail, striped
skeleton stretched itself in a hollow of the bed, and
great gleaming eyes watched me as they would devour
me with deathless and passionate love.

13

194 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

Sometimes his sonl seemed to steal out of his wither-
ing body and make mysterious pilgrimages into its
native cUme. I heard him murmuring and muttering
in a language unfamiliar to me. Remembered Z
the chiefs had a dialect of their own, — ^a vocabulary so
sacred and secret that no conmioner ever dared to study
out its meaning. This I took to be his classical and
royal tongue, for he was of the best blood of the king-
dom, and a king's heir.

Deborah, at the delicate suggestion of Grail, discon-
tinued her visitations to his chamber, as it seemed to
excite him so sadly ; but her earnest soul never rested
from prayer in his behalf till his last breath was spent,
and his splendid stripes grew livid for a moment, and
seemed to change like the dolphin's before their waning
glories were faded out in the lifeless flesL

One twilight I took the midgets into the darkened
room. They scarcely knew the thin, drawn face, with
the slender, wiry fingers locked over it, but they recog-
nized the death-stroke with prophetic instinct, and,
crouching at the foot of the bed, rocked their dusky
bodies to and fro, to and fro, wailing the death-wail for
Zebra.

Then I longed for wings to fly away with my savage
brood, — away, over seas and mountains, till the palms
waved again their phantom crests in the mellow star-
light, and the sea moaned upon the reef, and the rivulet
leaped from crag to crag through silence and shadow :
where death seemed but a grateful sleep ; for the soul
that dawned in that quiet life had never known the wear
and tear of this one, but was patient, and peaceful,
and ready at any hour of summons.

MY SOUTH-SEA SHOW. 195

Dear Qafl strove to comfort me in my tribulation ;
but the Great Public went its way, and knew nothing
of the young soul that was passing in speedy death.
Yet the Great Public was my guide, philosopher, and
friend. I could do nothing without its sanction and co-
operation. I basked in its smiles. I trembled at the
thought of its displeasure ; and now death was robbing
me of my hard-earned riches, and annihilating my best
attraction. No wonder I fretted myself, and berated
my ill-fortune. Poor Gkil had her hands ftdl to keep
me within boimds, I rushed to the Zebra's room, and
vowed to him that if he wouldn't die just yet I would
take him home at once to his kingdom, and we'd always
live there, and die there, by-and-by, when we were fiiU
of years.

Alas, it was too late I '^ I want to be an angel,"
reiterated my Zebra, his thin face brightening with an
unearthly light ; ^^ to be an angel," whispered that faint
and failing voice, while his humid eyes glowed like twin
moons sinking in the far, mystical horizon of the new
life he was about to enter upon. I struggled with him
no longer. I bowed down by his pillow, and pressed
the shadowy form of my once beautiful Zebra. " Well,
be an angel, little prince," said I ; " be anything you
please, now, for I have done my best to save you, and
£iiled utterly."

So he passed hence to his destiny; and his nation
wept not, neither wore they ashes upon their foreheads,
nor burned seams in their flesh ; for they knew not of
his fate. But there was a small grave digged in the
orchard, and at dusk I carried the cofBn in my arms
thither : how lij^ht it was I he could have bomA me

196 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

upon his brawny sboulders once, — strong as a lion^s.
Gail cried, and Deborah cried ; and I was qmte beside
myself. The mites of cannibals ate earth and ashes, and
came nearly naked to the obsequies, refusing to wear
their jackets, though the air was frosty and the night
promised snow. We knelt there, to cover Zebra for
the last time, crying and shivering, and feeling very,
very miserable.

I took a little rest from business after that ; seeing,
meantime^ a stone cut in this manner : —

Here lies,

In this far land,

A Pkivos of the Savaok South,

And the Last of his Tribe.

But life called me into th« arena again. A showman
has little time to waste in mourning over his losses,
however serious they may be.

One frosty evening I got my brace of cannibals into
the lumbering ambulance that constituted my caravan,
with our boxes of war-dubs and carved whaleVteeth
lashed on behind us, plenty of buffalo-robes around us, and
a layer of hot bricks underfoot, and so we started for our
next scene of action. The inexorable calls of the profes-
sion forbade our lingering longer under Gail's hospitable
roof; and it was not without pangs of inexpressible sorrow
that we turned from her door, and knew not if we were
ever again to enjoy the pure influences of her household.

My heart warmed toward poor, disconsolate Deborah
in that moment, and I forgave her all, which was the
most Christian act I ever yet performed. As we rode
down the lane, I caught a glimpse of the low mound in

MY SOUTH-SEA SHOW. 197

the orchard^ and I buried my little barbarians under my
great-coat, so as to spare them a fresh sorrow, while I
thought how, spring after spring, that small grave would
be covered with drifts of pale apple-blossoms, and in the
long winters it would be hidden under the paler drifts
of snow, — when it should be strewn with sea-shells, and
laid away under a cactus-hedge, in a dense and fragrant
shade ; and I gathered my httle ones closer to me, and
said in my soul : " 0, if iiie August Public could only
know them as I know them, it would doubt us less, and
love us more 1 The Zebra is gone, indeed, but my babes
are here, fresh souls in perfect bodies, like rare-ripe
fruits, untouched as yet, with the nap and the dew upon
them/' The stars sparkled and flashed in the cloudless
sky, as we hurried over the crisp ground, — ^a little, be-
reaved, benighted company of South-Sea strollers, who
ask your charity, and give their best in return for it.

I have told you of my South-Sea show. You may
yet have an opportunity of judging how you like it,
provided my baby heathens don*t insist upon turning
mto angels before their time, after the manner of Ibe
lamented Zebra. In &e meantime, the dread of this
not improbable curbing of my high career is but one of
the sorrows of a South-Sea showman.

THE HOUSE OF THE SUN.

Y Hawaiian oracle, Kah^le, having posed
himself in compact and chubby grace,
awaited his golden opportunity, which was
not long a-coming. I sat on the steps of

L ^'s verandah, and yawned frightfully, because life

was growing tedious, and I did not know exactly what

to do nejct. L ^'s house was set in the nicest kind of

climate, at the foot of a great mountain, just at that
altitude where the hot air stopped dancing, though it
was never cool enough to shut a door, or to think of
wearing a hat for any other purpose than to keep the

sun out of one's eyes. L ^'s veranda ran out into

vacancy as blank as cloudless sky and shadowless sea
could make it ; in fact, all that the eye found to rest
upon was the low hill jutting off from one comer of the
house beyond a jasmine in blossom ; and under the hill
a flat-sailed schooner rocking in a calm. I think there
was nothing else down the slope of the mountain but
tangled yellow grass, that grew brown and scant as it
crept into the torrid zone, a thousand feet below us, and
there it had not the courage to come out of the earth at
all ; so the picture ended in a blazing beach, with warm
waves sliding up and down it, backed by blue-watery

THE HOUSE OF THE SUJ^. 199

and blue-aiiy space for thousands and thousands of
miles.

Why should not a fellow yawn over the situation ?

especially as L was busy and could not talk much^

and L — — ^'s books were as old as the hills and a good
deal drier.

Having yawned, I turned toward K^h^le, and gnashed
my teeth. The little rascal looked knowing ; his hour
had come. He fired off in broken English, and the
effect was something like this : —

" Suppose we sleep in House of the Sun, — ^we make
plenty good sceneries ? "

" And where is that ? " quoth I.

Kah^e's little lump of a nose was jerked up toward

the great mountain at the back of L 's house.

" Haleakak I " * cried he, triumphantly, for he saw he
had resurrected my interest in life, and he felt that he
had a thing or two worth showing, a glimpse of which
might content me with this world, dull as I found it
just then. " Haleakak — the House of the Sun — up
before us," said Kah^le.

" And to get into the Sun's House ? "

" Make a good climb up, and go in from the top 1 **

Ha I to creep up the roof and drop in at the skylight :
this were indeed a royal adventure. " How long would
it take?"

Kah^le waxed eloquent. That night we should sleep
a little up on the slope of the mountain, lodging with the
haolis (foreigners) among the first clouds ; in the morn-
ing we should surprise the sun in the turrets of his

* Haleakala, an extinct crater in the Sandwich l8land«« sup.
poBed to be the laigest in the world.

joo SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

temple ; then down — down — down into the crater, €hat
had been strewed with ashes for a thousand years.
After that, out on the other side, toward the sea, where
the trade-winds blew, and the country was fresh and
fruitftd. The youngster sweated with enthasiiism while
he strove to make me comprehend the ftill extent of the
delights pertaining to this journey ; and, as he finished,
he made a rapid flank movement toward the animals,
staked a few rods away.

It was not necessary that I should consent to under-
take this expedition. He was eager to go, and he would
see that I enjoyed myself when I went ; but go I must,
now that he had made up my mind for me. I confess,
I was as wax in that climate. Yet, why not take this
promising and uncommon tour ? The charm of travel
is to break new paths. I ceased to yawn any further
over life. Kah^le went to the beasts, and began sad-
dling them. L 's hospitality culminated in a bottle

of cold, black coffee, and a hamper of delicious sand-
wiches, such as Mrs. L excels in. I had nothing

to do but to go. It did look like a conspiracy ; but, as
I never had the moral courage to fight against anything
of that sort, I got into the saddle and went.

Turning for a moment toward the brute's tail, over-
come with conflicting emotions, I said, —

" Adieu, dear L , thou picture of boisterous in-
dustry I Adieu, Mrs. L , whose light is hid under

the bushel of tliy lord ; but, as it warms him, it is all
right, I suppose, and thy reward shall come to thee some

day, I trust I By-by, multitudes of little L s,

tumbling recklessly in the back-yard, crowned with
youth and robust health and plenty of flaxen curls I

THE HOUSE OF THE SUN. aoi

Away, Kah^le 1 for it is toward evening, and the doads
are skating along the roof of the House of the Sun.
Sit not upon the order of your going, but strike spurs
at once, — ^and away 1 "

It was thus that I revived myself. The prospect of
fresh adventure intoxicated me. I do not believe I could
have been bought off after that enlivening farewell. The
air of the islands was charged with electricity. I bristled
all over with new life. I wanted to stand up in my
saddle and fly.

It seemed the boy had engaged a special guide for the
crater, — one accustomed to feeling his way through the
bleak hollow, where any unpractised feet must have
surely gone astray. Kah^le offered him a tempting
bonus to head our httle caravan at once, though it goes
sorely against the Hawaiian grain to make up a mind
inside of three days. Kah^le managed the financial
department, whenever he had the opportunity, with a
liberality worthy of a purse ten times as weighty as
mine ; but as he afterward assured me, that guide was
a fine man, and a friend of his whom it was a pleasure
and a privflege to serve.

Of course, it was all right, since I couldn't help my-
self ; and we three pulled up the long slopes of Halea-
kala, while the clouds multiplied, as tiie sun sank, and
the evoning grew awfiilly atilL Somewhere up anu)ng
the low-hanging mist there was a house fiill of hwli^
and there we proposed to spend the night. We were
looking for this shelter with all our six eyes, while we
rode slowly onward, having scarcely uttered a syllable
for the last half-hour. You know there are some im-
pressive sorts of solitude, that seal up a fellow's lips ; he

SQl SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

can only look about him in quiet wonderment, tempered
with a fearless and refreshing trust in that Providence
who has enjoined silence. Well, this was one of those
times ; and right in the midst of it Kah^e sighted a
smoke-wreath in the distance. To me it looked very
like a doud, and I ventured to declare it such ; but the
youngster frowned me down, and appealed to the special
guide for further testimony. The guide declined to
commit himself in the matter of smoke or mist, as he
ever did on all succeeding occasions, being a wise guide,
who knew his own faUibility. It was smoke I — a thin,
blue ribbon of it, uncoiling itself from among the
branches of the overhanging trees, floating up and up
and tying itself into double-bow knots, and then trying
to untie itself, but perishing in the attempt.

In the edge of the grove we saw the little white cot-
tage of the haolia ; and, not far away, a camp fire,
with bright, red flames dancing around a kettle, swung
imder three stakes with their three heads together. Tall
figures were moving about the camp, looking almost
like ghosts, in the uncertain glow of the fire ; and to-
wards these lights and shadows we jogged with satis-
faction, scenting supper from afar.

^^ Halloo I" said we, with voices that did not sound
very loud up in that thin atmosphere.

** ELalloo 1 " said they, with the deepest unconcern, as
though they had been through the whole range of hu-
man experience, and there was positively nothing left
for them to get excited over.

Some of their animals whinnied m a fashion that drew
a response from ours. A dog barked savagely until he
was spoken to, and th^i was obliged to content himself

THE HOUSE OF THE SUN. 203

with an occasional whine. Some animal — a sheep, per«
haps — rose up in the trail before us, and plunged into
bush, sending our beasts back on their haunches with
fright. A field-cricket lifted up its voice and sang; and
then a himdred joined him ; and then ten thousand
times ten thousand swelled the chorus, till the moun«
tains were aUve with singing crickets.

^^ Halloo, stranger I Come in and stop a bit, won't
you ? " This was our welcome from the chief of the
camp, who came a step or two forward, as soon as we
had ridden within range of the camp fire.

And we went in unto them, and ate of their bread,
and drank of their coffee, and slept in their blankets, —
or tried to sleep, — and had a mighty good time gene-
rafly.

The mountaineers proved to be a company of Cali-
fornia miners, who had somehow drifted over the sea,
and, once on that side, they naturally enough went into
the mountains to cut wood, break trails, and make them-
selves useful in a rough, outof-door fashion. They had
for companions and assistants a few natives, who, no
doubt, did the best they could, though the Califomians
expressed considerable contempt for the "lazy devils, .
who were fit for nothing but to fiddle on a jewVharp."

We ate of a thin, hot cake, baked in a frying-pan
over that camp fire ; gnawed a boiled bone fished out of
the kettle swung under the three sticks; drank big
bowls of coffee, sweetened with coarse brown sugar and
guiltless of milk ; and sat on the floor all the while,
with our legs crossed, like so many Turks and tailors.
We went to our blankets as soon as the camp fire had
smothered itself in ashes, though meanwhile Jack, chief

ao4 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

of the camp, gathered himself to windward of the flames,
with his hips on his heels and his chin on his knees,
smoking a stubby pipe, and talking of flush times in
Califomia. He was one of those men who could and
would part with his last quarter, relying upon Nature
for his bed and board. He said to me, ^^ If you can
rough it, hang on a while, — ^what's to drive you off^? "
I could rough it : the fire was out^ the night chilly ; so
we turned in under blue blankets with a fuzz on them
like moss, and, having pufied out the candle, — ^that lived
long enough to avenge its death in a houseful of villain-
ous smoke, — we turned over two or three times apiece,
and, one after another, fell asleep. At the farther side
of the house lay the natives, as thick as sheep in a pen,
one of them a glossy black feUow, as sleek as a eunuch,
bom in the West Indies, but whose sands of life had
been scattered on various shores. This sooty fellow
twanged a quaint instrument of native workmanship,
and twanged with imcommon skilL His art was the
life of that savage community at the other end of the
house. Again and again, during the night, I awoke
and heard the tinkle of his primitive harp, mingled with
the ejaculations of delight wrung from the hearts of his
dusky and sleepless listeners.

Once only was that midnight festival interrupted.
We all awoke suddenly and simultaneously, though
we scarcely knew why ; then the dog began to mouth
horribly. My blanket-fellows — ^beds we had none —
knew there was mischief brewing, and rushed out with
their guns cooked. Presently the dog came in from the
brush, complaining bitterly, and one of the miners shot
at a rag fluttering among the bushes. In the morning

THE HOUSE OF THE SUN. aos

we found a horse gone, and a couple of bullet-holes in a
shirt spread out to drj. As soon as the excitement was
oyer, we returned to the blankets and the floor. The
eunuch tuned his harp anew, and, after a long while,
dawn looked in at the uncurtamed window, with a pale,
grey face, freckled with stars.

Kah^le saw it as soon as I did, and was up betimes.
I fancy he slept little or none that night, for he was fond
of music, and especially fond of such music as had made
the latst few hours more or less hideous. Everybody
rose with the break of day, and there was something to
eat long before sunrise, after which our caravan, with
new vigour, headed for the summit.

Wonderful clouds swept by us ; sometimes we were
lost for a moment in their icy depths. I could scarcely
see the tall ears of my mule when we rode into tiiose
opaque billows of vapour that swept noiselessly along
the awful heights we were scaling. It was a momen-
tary but severe bereavement^ the loss ofthose ears and
the head that went with them, because Icared not
to ride saddles that seemed to be floating in the air.
What was Prince Firouz Schah to me, or what was
I to the Princess of Bengal, that I should do this
thingi

There are pleasanter sensations than that of going to
heaven on horseback ; and we wondered if we should
ever reach the point where we could begin to descend
again to our natural level, and talk to people infinitely
below us just then. Ten thousand perpendicular feet
in the air ; our breath short ; our animals weak in the
knees ; the ocean rising about us like a wall of sapphire,
on the top of which the sky rested like a cover, — ^we

206 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

felt as though we were shut in an exhausted receiver,
the victims of some scientific experiment for the delec-
tation of the angels. We were at the very top of the
earth. There was nothing on our side of it nearer to
Saturn than the crown of our heads. It was deuced
solemn, and a trifle embarrassing. It was as though
we were personally responsible for the planet during
the second we happened to be uppermost in the universe.
I felt unequal to the occasion in that thin, relaxing
atmosphere. The special guide, I knew, would shirk
this august investiture, as he shirked everything else,
save only the watchful care of my collapsing porte-
monnaie. Kah^le, perhaps, would represent us to the
best of his ability, — ^which was not much beyond an
amazing capacity for food and sleep, coupled with
cheek for at least two of his size. There is danger
in delay, saiih the copybook ; and while we crept
slowly onward toward the rim of the crater, the sun
rose, and we forgot all else save his glory. "We had
reached the mouth of the chasm. Below us yawned
a gulf whose farther walls seemed the outlines of some
distant island, within whose depths a sea of cloud was
satisfied to ebb and flow, whose billows broke noiselessly
at the base of the sombre walls among whose battle-
ments we clung like insects. I wonder that we were
not dragged into that awful sea, for strange and sudden
gusts of wind swept past us, coming from various
quarters, and rushing like heralds to the four corners
of the heavens. We were far above the currents that
girdle the lower earth, and seemed in a measure cut off
from the life that was past. We lived and breathed in
doud-land. All our pictures were of vapour ; our sur-

THE HOUSE OF THE SUN. 7x^

ronndings changed oontintiallj. Forests laoed with
frost ; silyery, silent seas ; shores of agate and of pearl ;
blue, shadowy cayems ; mountains of light, dissolving
and rising again transfigured in glorious resurrection,
the sun tinging them with infinite colour. A flood of
radiance swept over the mysterious picture, — a deluge
of blood-red glory that came and went like a blush ; and
then the mists fiuled and fled away, and gradually we
saw the deep bed of the crater, blackened, scarred, dis-
torted, — a desert of ashes and cinders shut in by sooty
walls ; no tinge of green, no suggestion of life, no sound
to relieve the imposing silence of that Uteral death of
Nature. We were about to enter the guest-chamber of
the House of the Sun. If we had been spirited away
to the enchanted cavern of some gemi, we could not
have been more bewildered. The cloud-world had come
to an untimely end, and we were left alone among its
bkckened and charred ruins. That magician, the sun,
hearing the approach of spies, had transformed his fidry
palace into a bare and uninviting wilderness. But we
were destined to explore it notwithstanding ; and our
next move was to dismount and drive our unwilling
animals over into the abyss. The angle of our descent
was too near the perpendicular to sound Uke truth, in
print. I will not venture to give it ; but I remember
that our particular guide and his beast were under foot,
while ElahSe and his beast were overhead, and I and
my beast, sandwiched between, managed to survive the
double horror of being buried in the debris that rained
upon us from the tail-end of the caravan, and slaying
the unfortunate leaders ahead with the multitude of
rocks we sent thundering down the diS. A moving

ao8 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

avalanche of stones and dnst gradnaQy brought as to
the bed of the crater, where we offered thanks in the
midst of an ascending dond of cinders, eveiy soul of us
panting with exhaustion, and oozing like a saturated
sponge. The heat was terrific ; shelter there was none ;

L ^'s co£Pee was all that saved ns from despair.

Before us stretched miles and miles of lava, lookii^
like scorched pie-crust; two thousand feet above us
hung heavy masses of baked masonry, unrelieved by
any tinge of verdure. To the windward there was a
gap in the walls, through which forked tongues of mist
ran in, but curied up and over the ragged cli£&, as
though the prospect were too uninviting to lure them
farther. It behoved us to get on apace, for life in the
deserted House of the Sun was, indeed, a burden, and
moreover there was some danger of our being locked in.
The wind might veer a little, in which case an ocean of
mist would deluge the crater, shutting out light and
heat, and bewildering the pilgrim so that escape were
impossible. The loadstone bewitched the compass in
that fixed sea, and there were no beacons and no sound-
ing signals to steer by. Across the smooth, hard lava
occasional traces of a trail were vbible, like scratches
upon glass. Close to the edges of this perilous path
yawned chasms. Sometimes the narrow way led over
a ridge between two sandy hollows, out of which it was
almost impossible to return, if one false step should
plunge you into its yielding vortex. There was a long
pull toward afternoon, and a sweltering camp about

three p.m., where we finished L 's lunch, and were

not half satisfied. Even the consoling weed barely
sustained our fainting spirits, for we knew that the

THE HOUSE OF THE SUN. 209

more tedious portion of the journey was yet to
come.

The windward vestibule wound down toward the sea,
a wild gorge through which the molten lava had poured
its destructive flood. There it lay, a broad, uneven
pass of dead, black coal, — clinkers, as ragged and sharp
as broken glass, — threaded by one beaten track a few
inches in breadth. To lose this trail was to tear the
hoofs from your suffering beasts in an hour or two, and
to lacerate your own feet in half the time. Having
refreshed ourselves on next to nothing, we pressed for-
ward. Already the shadows were creeping into the
House of the Sun, and as yet we had scarcely gained
the mouth of the pass. As we rode out from the shelter
of a bluff, a cold draught struck us like a wave of
the sea. Down the bleak, winding chasm we saw clouds
approaching, pale messengers that travel with the trade-
wind and find lodgment in the House of the Sun.
They were hastening home betimes, and had surprised
us in the passage. It was an unwelcome meeting.
Our particular guide ventured to assume an expression
of concern, and cautiously remarked that we were
palikiay — ^that is, in trouble I For once he was equal
to an emergency ; he knew of a dry well close at hand ;
we could drop into it and pass the night, since it was
impossible to feel our way out of the crater through
clouds almost as dense as cotton. Had we matches?
No. Had we dry sticks ? Yes, in the well, perhaps.
Kah^le could make fire without phosphorus, and we
could keep warm till morning, and then escape from
the crater as early as possible. After much groping
about, in and out of clouds, we found the dusty well

14

210 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

and dropped into it. Ferns — ^a few of them — grew
about its sides ; a dwarfed tree, rejoicing in four angular
branohes, as full of mossj elbows as possible, stood in
tbe centre of our retreat^ and at the roots of this
miserable recluse the Kanakas contrived to grind out
a flame by boring into a bit of decayed wood with a
dry stick twirled rapidly between their palms. Dead
leayes, dried moss, and a few twigs made a short-lived
and feeble fire for us. Darkness had come upon the
place. We watched the flaming daggers stab the air
fitfully, and finally sheathe themselves for good. We
filled our shallow cave with smoke that drove us into
the mouth of it^ from time to time, to keep from stran-
gulation. We saw our wretched beasts shaking with
cold ; we saw the swift, belated clouds hurrying onward
in ghostly procession ; we could do nothing but shudder
and return to our dismal bed. No cheerfiil cricket blew
his shrill pipe, like a policeman's whistle ; the sea sang
not for us with its deep, resounding voice ; the Hawaiian
harp was hushed. A stone, loosened by some restless
lizard, rattled down the cli£F; a goat, complaining of
the cold, bleated once or twice. The wind soughed;
the dry branches of our withering tree sawed across
each other : these were our comforters during that
almost endless night.

Once the heavens were opened to us. Through the
rent in the clouds we saw a great shoulder of the cliff
above us, bathed in moonlight. A thousand grotesque
shadows played over the fitce of it. Pictures came and
went, — a palimpsest of mysteries. Gargoyles leered at
us from under the threatening brows of the bluff; and a
white spectre, shining like a star, stood on the upper-

THE HOUSE OF THE SUN, 211

most peak, voiceless and motionless, — some living crea-
ture lost in admiration of the moon. Then the sky fell
on us, and we were routed to our solitary cave.

There is a solitude of the sea that swallows up hope;
the despairing spirit hangs over a threatening abyss of
death; yet above it and below it there are forms of life
rejoicing in their natural element. But there is a soli-
tude of the earth that is more awful; in it Death taunts
you with his presence, yet delays to strike. At sea, one
step, and the spirit is set at liberty, — ^the body is en-
tombed for ever. But alas ! within the deserts of the
earth no sepulchre awaits the ashes of him who has
suffered, and nought but the winds or the foul-feeding
vultures shall cleanse that bleaching skeleton where it
lies.

"We tried to sleep on our stony pillows. Kah^le woke
and foimd the guide and me dozing; later, the guide
roused himself to the discovery that Kah^e and I wete
wrapped in virtuous unconsciousness. Anon I sat up
among the rocks, listened to the two natives breathing
heavily, and heard the wind sighing over the yawning
mouth of our cavern. I heard tie beasts stamping
among the clinkers, and covered my head again with
the damp blanket, and besieged sleep. Then we all
three started from our unrefi^shing dreams, and lo 1
the clouds were rising and fleeing away, and a faint,
rosy light over the summit-peaks looked like sunrise;
80 we rose and saddled the caravan, and searched
about us for the lost trail. Hour after hour we
drew nearer to the mouth of the crater. Our pro-
gress was snail-like ; each one of us struck out for
himself^ having lost confidence in the cunning of the

aia SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

other. From small eleyations we took our reckoning,
and he who got the farthest toward the sea lifted np
his Yoioe in triumph, and was speedily joined by the
rest of the party.

At last we came npon the bluffs that overhang the
green shores of the island. We were safely out of the
Sun^s Tabernacle, but not yet free to pass into the lowly
vales of the earth. Again and again we rode to the
edges of the cliffs, whose precipitous walls forbade our
descent. Sometimes we clung to the bare ribs of the
mountain^ where a single misstep might have sent us
headlong into the hereafter. Frequently we rejoiced in
a discovery that promised well; but anon a sheltered
chasm unveiled its hideous depths, or an indigo-jungle
laid hold of us and cut us off in that direction.

Below us lay the verdant slopes of Kaupo. From
their dried-grass houses flocked the natives, looking like
ants and their hills. They watched us for hours with
amused interest. Now and then they called to us with
faint and far-off voices, — suggestions that were lost to
us, since they sounded like so many bird-notes floating
in the wind. All day we saw the little village lying
under us temptingly peaceful and lazy. Clouds still
hung below us: some of them swept by, pouring copious
drops, that drove our audience within doors for a few
moments; but the rain was soon over, the sim shone
brighter than over, the people returned to watch us, and
the day waned. We surprised flock npon fiock of goats
in their rocky retreats; but they dispersed in all direc-
tions like quicksilver, and we jjassed on. About dusk
we got into the grassy land, and thanked God for deli-
verance.

THE HOUSE OF THE SUN. 213

Here Kah^e's heart rejoiced. Here, close by the Kttle
chapel of Kaupo, he discovered one whom he proclaimed
his grandfather; though, judging from the years of the
man, he could scarcely have been anything beyond an
uncle. I was put to rest in a little stone cell, where the
priests sleep when they are on their mission to Kaupo.
A narrow bed, with a crucifix at the foot of it, a small
window in the thick wall, with a jug of water in the
comer thereof, and a chair with a game-leg, constituted
the famishment of the quaint lodging. Kah^e rushed
about to see old friends, — ^who wept over him, — ^and
was very long absent, whereat I waxed wroth, and
berated him roundly; but the poor fellow was so charm-
ingly repentant that I forgave him all, and more too,
for I promised him I would stay three days, at least,
with his uncle-grandfather, and give him his universal
liberty for the time being.

From the open doorway I saw the long sweep of the
mountains, looking cool and purple in the twilight.
The ghostly procession of the mists stole in at the wind-
ward gap; the after-glow of the evening suffused the
front of the chapel with a warm light, and the statue of
the Virgin above the chapel-door, — ^a little faded with
the suns of that endless summer, a Kttle mildewed with
the frequent rains, — ^the statue looked down upon us
with a smile of welcome. Some youngsters, as naked
as day-old nest-birds, tossed a ball into the air; and
when it at last lodged in the niche of the Virgin, they
clapped their hands, half in merriment and half in awe,
and the games of the evening ended. Then the full
moon rose; a cock crew in the peak of the chapel,
thinking it daybreak, and the little fellows slept^ with

314 SUMMEk CRUISING IN THk SOVTH SMAS,

their spines curved like young kittens. By and by the
moon hungy round and mello^v, beyond the chapel-cross,
and threw a long shadow in the grass; and then I went
to my cell and folded my hands to rest^ with a sense of
blessed and unutterable peace.

THE CHAPEL OP THE PALMS.

H^ the long suifering of him who threads a
narrow trail over the brown crust of a
hill where the short grass lies flat in tropical
snnshinel On one side sleeps the bine,
monotonous sea; on Hie o^evy (^rags clothe themselves
in cool mist and look dreamy and solemn.

The boy Elah^e, who has no ambition beyond the bit
of his foot-sore mustang, lags behind, taking all the
dust with commendable resignation.

As for me, I am wet through with the last shower;
I steam in the fierce noonday heat. I spur Hok^ the
mule into the shadow of a great cloud that drifts lazily
overhead, and am grateftil for this unsatisfying shade as
long as it lasts. I watch the sea, swinging my whip by
its threadbare lash hke a pendulum, — ^the sea, where a
very black rock is being drowned over and over by the
tremendous swell that covers it for a moment; but
somehow the rock comes to the surface again, and seems
to gasp horribly in a deluge of breakers. That rock has
been drowning for centuries, yet its struggle for life is
as real as ever.

I watch the mountains, cleft with green, fern-
cushioned chasms, where an occasional stream silently

ai6 SUMMEK CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

distils. Far np on a son-swept ledge a wliite^ scatter-
ing drift, looking like a rose-garden after a high wind,
I know to be a flock of goats feeding. But the wind-
dried and son-bnmt grass under foot, the intangible
dost that pervades the air, the rain-cloud in the dis-
tance, trailing its banners of crape in the sea as it bears
down upon us, — ^these annoyed me somewhat, and make
life a burden for the time being ; so I spur my faithless
Hok^ up a new ascent as forbidding as any that we
have yet come upon, and slowly and with many pauses
creep to the summit.

Kah^le, " the goer,*' beUes his name, for he loiters
everywhere and always ; yet I am not sorry. I have
the first glimpse of Wailua all to myself. I am not
obliged to betray my emotion, which is a bore of the
worst sort.

Wailua lies at my feet, — a valley full of bees, butter-
flies, and blossoms, the sea fawning at the mouth of it,
the clouds melting over it ; waterfalls gushing from
numerous green comers ; silver-white phaetons floating
in mid-4iir, at a loss to choose between earth and
heaven, though evidently a httle inclined earthward,
for they no sooner drift out of the bewildering bowers
of Wailua than they return again with noticeable haste.

Down I plunge into the depths of the valley, with the
first drops of a heavy shower pelting me in the back;
and under a great tree, that seems yearning to shelter
somebody, I pause till the rain is over.

Anon the slow-footed Kah^le arrives, leaking all over,
and bringing a peace-oflering of ohias, the native apple,
as juicy and sweet as the forbidden fruits of Paradise.
As for these apples, they have solitary seed, like a nut-

THE CHAPEL OF THE PALMS. 217

meg, a pulp as white as wax, a juice flavoured with
roses, and their skin as red as a peony and as glossy as
varnish. These we munch and munch while the forest
reels under the impetuous avalanches of big rain-drops,
and our animals tear great tufts of sweet grass from the
upper roadside.

Is it far to the chapel, I wonder. Kah^le thinks not,
— perhaps a pari or two distant. But a pari, a cliff, has
many antecedents, and I feel that some dozen or so of
climbs, each more or less fatiguing, still separate me
from the rest I am seeking, and hope not to find until I
reach the abode of Pfere FideUs, at the foot of the cross,
as one might say.

The rain ceases. Hok^ once more nerves himself for
fresh assaults upon the everlasting hills. Kah^le drops
behind as usual, and the afternoon wanes.

How fresh seems the memory of this journey, yet its
place is with the archives of the past. I seem to breathe
the incense of orange-flowers, and to hear the whisper of
distant waterfalls as I write.

It must have been toward sunset, — ^we were thread-
ing the eastern coast, and a great mountain filled the
west — ^but I felt that it was the hour when day ends
and night begins. The heavy clouds looked as tiiough
they were stfll brimful of sunlight, yet no ray escaped
to gladden our side of the world.

Finally, on the brow of what seemed to be the last
hill in this life, I saw a cross, — ^a cross among the palms.
Hok^ saw it, and quickened his pace : he was not so
great an ass but he knew that there was provender in
the green pastures of Pfere Fidelis, and his heart
freshened within him.

tiS SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

A few paces from the grove of palms I heard a bell
swing jubilantly. Out over the solemn sea, up and
down that foam-crested shore, rang the sweet Angelus.
One may pray with some fervour when one's journey is
at an end. When the prayer was over, I walked to the
gate of the chapel-yard, leading the willing Hok^, and
at that moment a slender figure, dad all in black, his
long robes flowing gracefully about him, his boyish
face heightening the effect of his grave and serene
demeanour, his thin, sensitive hands held forth in
hearty welcome, — ^a welcome that was almost like a
benediction, so spiritual was the love which it ex-
pressed, — came out, and I found myself in the arms
of Pire Fidelis, feeling like one who has at least
1>^en permitted to kneel upon the threshold of his
Mecca.

Why do our hearts sing jvhUate when we meet a
friend for the first time ? What is it within us that
with its life-long yearning comes suddenly upon the all-
sufficient one, and in a moment is crowned and satis-
fied? I could not tell whether I was at last waking
from a sleep or just sinking into a dream. I could have
sat there at his feet contented ; I could have put off my
worldly cares, resigned ambition, forgotten the past,
and, in the blessed tranquillity of that hour, have dwelt
joyfully under the palms with him, seeking only to
follow in his patient footsteps until the end should
come.

Perhaps it was the realization of an ideal that
plunged me into a luxurious reverie, out of which I
was summoned by mon pire, who hinted that I must
be hungry. Prophetic father! hungry I was indeed.

THk CHAPEL OP THE PALMS. 219

Monphre led me to his little house with three rooms,
and installed me host, himself being my ever-watchful
attendant. Then he spoke : ^^ The lads were at the sea,
fishing : would I excuse him for a moment ? "

Alone in the little house, with a glass of claret and a
hard biscuit for refreshment, I looked about me. The
central room, in which I sat, was bare to nakedness : a
few devotional books, a small clock high up on the
wall, with a short wagging penduliun, two or three
paintings, betraying more sentiment than merit, a table,
a wooden form against the window, and a crucifix,
complete its inventory. A high window was at
my back ; a door in front opening upon a verandah
shaded with a passion-vine ; beyond it a green, undu-
lating country running down into the sea ; on either
hand a UtUe cell containing nothing but a narrow bed,
a saint's picture, and a rosary. Kah^le, having distri-
buted the animals in good pasturage, lay on the veran-
dah at fiill length, supremely happy as he jingled his
spurs over the edge of the steps, and hununed a native
air in subdued fisdsetto, like a mosquito.

Again I sank into a reverie. Enter mon phre with
apologies and a plate of smoking cakes made of eggs
and batter, his own handiwork ; enter the lads from
the sea with excellent fish, knotted in long wisps of
grass ; enter Kah^le, lazily snifiing the savoury odours
of our repast with evident relish ; and then supper in
good earnest.

How happy we were, having such talks in several
sorts of tongues, such polyglot efforts towards socia-
biliiy, — French, English, and native in equal parts, but
each broken and spliced to suit our dire necessity I The

220 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

candle flamed and flickered in the land-breeze that
swept through the house, — ^unctuous waxen stalactites
decorated it almost past recognition ; the crickets sang
lustily at the doorway ; the little natives grew sleepy
and curled up on their mats in the comer; Kah^le
slept in his spurs like a bom muleteer. And now a
sudden conviction seized us that it was bedtime in very
truth ; so mon pire led me to one of the cells, saying,
" Will you sleep in the room of Pfere Amabills ? "
Yea, verily, with all humility ; and there I slept after
the benediction, during which the young priest's face
looked almost Uke an angel's in its youthful holiness,
and I was afraid I might wake in the morning and
find him gone, transported to some other and more
lovely world.

But I didn't. Pfere Fidelis was up before daybreak.
It was his hand that clashed the joyful Angelus at sun-
rise that woko me from my happy dream ; it was his
band ihat prepared the frugal but appetizing meal ; he
made the cofiPee, such rich, black, aromatic cofiee as
Frenchmen alone have the faculty of producing. He
had an eye to the welfare of the animals also, and seemed
to be commander-in-chief of a£Pairs secular as well as
ecclesiastical ; yet he was so young I

There was a day of brief incursions mountain-ward,
with ihe happiest results. There were welcomes show-
ered upon me for his sake ; he was ever ministering to
my temporal wants, and puzzling me with dissertations
in assorted languages.

By happy fortune a Sunday followed when the
Ohfq)el of the Palms was thronged with dusky worship-
pers ; not a white &ce present but the father's and mine

THE CHAPEL OF THE PALMS. aai

own, yet a common trust in the blessedness of the life
to come struck the key-note of universal harmony, and
we sang the Magnificat with one voice. There was
something that fretted me in all this admirable expe-
rience : Pfere Fidelis could touch neither bread nor
water until after the last mass. Hour by hour he grew
paler and fainter, spite of the heroic fortitude that sus-
tained his famishing body.

" Mon pirej' said I, " you must eat, cfr go to heaven
betimes." He would not "You must end with an
earlier mass," I persisted. It was impossible : many
parishioners came from miles away; some of these
started at daybreak, as it was, and they would be unable
to arrive in season for an earlier mass. Excellent
martyr ! thought I, to offer thy body a living sacrifice
for the edification of these savage Christians 1 At last
he ate, but not until appetite itself had perished. Then
troops of children gathered about him clamouring to
kiss the hand of the priestiy youth; old men and women
passed him with heads uncovered, amazed at the devo-
tion of one they could not hope to emulate.

Whenever I referred to his hfe, he at once led me to
admire his fellow-apostle, who was continually in his
thoughts. Pere Amabilis was miles away, repairing a
chapel that had suffered somewhat in a late gale ; Phre
Amabilis would be so glad to see me ; I must not fail
to visit him ; and for fear of some mischance, Pfere
Fidelis would himself conduct me to him.

The way was hard, — deep chasms to penetrate, swift
streams to be forded, narrow and slippery trails to be
threaded through forest, swamp, and wilderness. These
obstacles separated the devoted friends, but not for long

SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

seasons. F^re Fidelia would go to him whom he had
not laid ejes on for a fortnight at least.

The boy Kah^le was glad of companionship ; one of
the small fishers, an acolyte of the chapel, would accom-
pany us, and together they could lag behind, eating
ohias and dabbling in ev^ery stream.

A long day's journey followed. We wended our way
through jungles of lauhala, with slim roots in the air
and long branches trailing about them like vines ; they
were like great cages of roots and branches in a woven
snarL We saw a rocky point jutting far into the sea.
" Pfere Amabihs dwells just beyond that cape," said my
companion, fondly; and it seemed not very far distant ;
but our pace was slow and wearisome, and the hours
were sure to distance us. We fathomed dark ravines
whose farther walls were but a stone's throw from us,
but in whose profound depths a swifl torrent rushed
madly to the sea, threatening to carry us to our destruo^
tion, — ^green, precipitous troughs, where the tide of
mountain-rain was lashed into fury, and with its death-
song drowned our voices and filled our animals with
terror.

Now and then we paused to breathe, man and beast
panting with fatigue ; sometimes the rain drove us into
the thick wood for shelter ; sometimes a brief deluge,
the offspring of a rent cloud at the head of the ravine,
stayed our progress for half an hour, until its volume
was somewhat spent and the stream was again fordable.
Here we talked of the daily miracles in nature. Again
and again the young fisithers are called forth into the
wilderness to attend on the sick and dying. Little
chapels are hidden away among the mountains and

T^

THE CHAPEL OF THE PALMS. 223

through the valleys ; all these must be visited in turn.
Their life is an actual pilgrimage from chapel to chapel,
which nothing but physical inability may interrupt.

At one spot I saw a tree under which Pfere Fidelis
once passed a tempestuous night. On either side yawned
a ravine swept by an impassable flood. There was no
house within reach. On the soaked earth, with a piti-
less gale sweeping over the land, from sunset to simrise
he lay without the consolation of one companion. Food
was frequently scarce: a few limpets, about as palatable
as parboiled shoe-leather, a paste of roast yams and
water, a lime perhaps, and nothing besides but limipy
salt from ihe sea-shore.

While we were riding a herald met us bearing a
letter for TM)n pire. It was a greeting from Pere
Amabilis, who announced the chapel as rapidly nearing
its complete restoration. Pfere Kdelis fairly wept for
joy at this intelligence, and burst into a panegyric upon
the unrivalled ingenuity of his spiritual associate. We
were sure to surprise him at work, and this trifling
episode seemed to be an event of some importance in
the isolated life they led.

At sunset we passed into the open vale of Wailuanui,
and saw the chapel looking fresh and tidy on the slope
of the bin toward the sea. Two waterfalls that fell
against the sunset flashed like falling flame, and a soft
haze tinged the slumberous solitudes of wood and pas-
ture with the dream-like loveliness of a picture. There
seemed to be but one sound audible, — ^the quick, sharp
blows of a hammer. Pfere Fidelis listened with eyes
sparkling, and then rode rapidly onward.

Behold I from the chapel wall, high up on a scafibld-

834 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

ing of boughs, his robes gailiered about him, his head
uncovered and hammer in hand, F^re Amabilis leaned
forth to welcome us. The hammer fell to the eartL
F^re Amabilis loosened his skirts and clasped his hands
in unaflPected rapture. We were three satisfied souls,
asking for nothing beyond the hem of that lonely valley
in the Facific.

Of course there was the smallest possible house that
could be lived in, for our sole accommodation, because
but one priest needed to visit the district at a time, and
a very young priest at that. A tiny bed in one corner
of the room was thought suffideni^ together with two
plates, two cups, and a single spoon. Luxuries were
unknown and unregretted.

" Well, fiither, what have you at this hotel ?" said P^re
Fidelis, as we came to the door of the cubby-house.

"Water," repKed our host with a grave tone that had
an undercurrent of truth in it.

But we were better provided for. Within an hour's
time a reception took place : the native parishioners
came forth to welcome Ffere Fidelis and the stranger,
each bringing some voluntary tribute, — a fish, a fowl
lean enough to quiet the conscience of Fere Fidelis, an
egg or two, or a bunch of tare.

Long talks followed ; the news of the last month was
discussed with much enthusiasm, and some few who had
no opportunity of joining in the debate gave expression
to their sentiments through such speaking eyes as
savages usually are possessed of.

The welcome supper -hour approached. Willing
hands dressed a fowl ; swift feet plied between the
spring and the kettle swung over the open camp-fire ^

. THE CHAPEL OF THE PALMS, 22$

children danced for very joy before the door of the
chapel, nnder the statue of the Virgin, whose head was
adorned with a garland of living flowers. The shadows
deepened ; stars seemed to cluster over the valley
and glow with unusual fervour ; the crickets sang
mightily, — ^they are always singing mightily over
yonder ; supper came to the bare table wiih its meagre
array of dishes ; and, since I was forced to have a
whole plate and a bowl, as well as the solitary spoon,
for my whole use, the two young priests ate together
from the same dish and drank from the same cup, and
were as grateful and happy as the birds of the air under
similar circumstances.

A merry meal, that I For us no weak tea, that satiri-
cal consoler, nor tea whose strength is bitterness, an
abomination to the faithful, but man pbre^s own coflFee,
the very aroma of which was invigorating ; then our
friendly pipes out under the starlight, where we sat
diatting amicably, with our three heads turbaned in an
aromatic Virginian cloud.

I learned something of the life of these two friends
during that social evening. Bom in the same city in
the north of France, reared in the same schools, gradu-
ated at the same university, each fond of life and
acquainted with its follies, each in turn stricken with an
illness that threatened death, together they came out of
the dark valley with their future consecrated to the
work that now absorbs them, the friendship of their
childhood increasing with their years and sustaining
them in a remote land, where their vow of poverty
seems almost like sarcasm, since circumstances deprives
them of all luxuries.

16

2t6 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

^^ Do you never long for home ? do yon never regret
your vow ? " I asked.

" Never I " iihey answered ; and I believed ihem.
" These old people are as parents to us ; these younger
ones are as brothers and sisters ; these children we love
as dearly as though they were our own. What more
can we ask ? "

What more indeed I With the rain beating down
upon your unsheltered heads, and the torrents threaten-
ing to engulf you; feint with joumeyings ; a-hungered
often ; weak with fastings ; palUd with prayer, — ^what
more can you ask in the same line ? say I.

Pere Fidelis coughed a little, and was somewhat
feverish. I could see that his life was not elastic ; his
strength was even then failing him.

" Pfere Amabilis is an artisan : he built this house,
and it is small enough ; but some day he will build a
house for me but six feet long and so broad," said Pfere
Fidelis, shrugging his shoulders ; whereat Pfere Ama-
bilis, who looked like a German student with his long
hair and spectacles, turned aside to wipe the moisture
from the lenses, and said nothing, but laid his hand
significantly upon the shoulder of his friend, as if im-
ploring silence. Alas for him when those Ups are silent
for ever I

I wondered if they had no recreation.

" yes. The poor pictures at the Chapel of the
Palms are ours, but we have not studied art. And
then we are sometimes summoned to the farther side of
the island, where we meet new feces. It is a great
change."

For a year before the arrival of Pfere Amabilis, who

THE CHAPEL OP THE PALMS, 227

•

was not sooner able to follow his friend, PAre Fidelis
was accustomed to go once a month to a confessional
many miles away. That his absence might be as brief
as possible, he was obliged to travel night and day.
Sometimes he would reach the house of his confessor at
midnight, when aU were sleeping : thereupon would
follow ihis singular colloquy in true native fashion. A
rap at the door at midnight, the confessor waking from
his sleep.

C<mfe8S(yr. « Who's there ? "

Phre Fidelia. "It is 1 1"

Conf. "Who is I?"

PireF. "Fidelis I '*

Conf. "Fidelis who?'*

Pkre F. " Fidelis kahuna pule I" (FideUs the priest.)

Conf. " Aweh 1 " (An expression of the greatest
surprise.) " Entre, Fidelis kahuna pule.''

Then he would rise, and the communion that followed
must have been most cheering to both, for mon pkre
even now is merry when he recalls it.

These pilgrimages are at an end, for the two priests
confess to one another : conceive of the fellowship that
hides away no secret, however mortifying !

The whole population must have been long asleep
before we thought of retiring that night, and then arose
an argument concerning the fittest occupant of the
solitary bed. It fell to me, for both were against me,
and each was my superior. When I protested, they
held up their fingers and said, "Eemember, we are your
fathers and must be obeyed." Thus I was driven to
the bed, while mine hosts lay on the bare floor ivith
saddles for pillows.

228 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

It was this self-sacrificing hospitality that hastened
my departure. I felt earth could oflFer me no nobler
fellowship, — ^that all acts to come, however gracious,
would bear a tinge of selfishness in comparison with the
reception I had met where least expected.

I am thankful that I had not the heart to sleep well,
for I think I could never have forgiven myself* had I
done so. When I woke in the early part of the night,
I saw the young priests bowed over their breviaries, for
I had delayed the accustomed ofiSces of devotion, and
they were fiilfilling them in peace at last, having me so
weU bestowed that it was utterly impossible to do aught
else for my entertainment.

Once more the morning came. I woke to find Pfere
Amabilis at work, hanmier in hand, sending his nails
home with accurate strokes that spoke well for his
trained muscle. Pdre Fidelis was concocting coffee and
directing the volunteer cooks, who were seeking to sur-
pass themselves upon this last meal we were to take
together. In an hour mon phre was to start for the
Chapel of the Palms, while 1 wended my way onward
through a new country, bearing with me the consoling
memory of my precious friends. I can forgive a slight
and forget the person who sKghts me, but little kind-
nesses probe me to the quick. I wonder why the twin
fathers were so very careful of me that morning? They
could not do enough to satisfy themselves, and that
made me miserable ; they stabbed me with tender
words, and tried to be cheerful with such evident effort
that I couldn't eat half my breakfast, though, as it
was, I ate more than they did — God forgive me I — ^and
altogether it was a solemn and memorable meaL

THE CHAPEL OF THE PALMS, 229

A group of natives gathered about us seated upon
the floor ; it was impossible for Pfere Fidelis to move
without being stroked by the affectionate creatures who
deplored his departure. Pfere Amabilis insisted upon
adjusting our saddles, during which ceremony he slyly
hid a morsel of cold fowl in our saddle-bags.

That parting was as cruel as death. We shall pro-
bably never see one another again ; if we do, we shall
be older and more practical and more worldly, and the
exquisite confidence we have in one another will have
grown blunt with time. I felt it then as I know it now
— our brief idyl can never be lived over in this life.

Well, we departed : the corners of our blessed tri-
angle were spread frightfully. Pfere Fidelis was paler
than ever ; he caught his breath as though there wasn't
much of it, and the little there was wouldn't last long ;
Pfere Amabilis wiped his spectacles and looked utterly
forsaken ; the natives stood about in awkward, silent
groups, coming forward, one by one, to shake hands,
and then falling back like so many automatons. Some-
how, genuine grief is never graceful : it forgets to pose
itself ; its muscles are perfectly slack and unreliable.

The sea looked grey and forbidding as it shook its
shaggy breakers under the cliff: life was dismal enough.
The animals were unusually wayward, and once or
twice I paused in despair under the prickly sunshine,
half inclined to go back and begin over again, hoping
to renew the past ; but just then Hok6 felt like stagger-
ing onward, and I began to realize that there are some
brief, perfect experiences in life that pass from us like a
dream, and this was one of them.

In the proem to this idyl I seem to see two shadowy

230 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

figures passing up and down over a lonesome land.
Fever and fiunine do not stay them ; the elements alone
have power to check their pilgrimage. Their advent is
hailed with joyfdl bells : tears fall when they depart.
Their paths are peace. Fearlessly they battle with con-
tagion, and are at hand to dose the pestilential lips of
andean death. They have lifted my soul above things
earthly^ and held it secure for a moment. From beyond
the waters my heart returns to them. Again at twi-
light^ over the still sea, floats the sweet Angelus ; again
I approach the chapel falling to slow decay : there are
iresh mounds in the churchyard, and the voice of avail-
ing is heard for a passing soul. By-and-by, if there is
work to do, it shall be done, and the hands shall be
folded, for the young apostles will have followed in the
silent footsteps of their flock. Here endeth the lesson
of the Chapel of the Palms.

KAHELB.

ROM a bluff, whose bald forehead jutted a
thousand feet into the air, and under whose
chin the sea shrugged its great shoulders,
Kahele, my boy, — that dehghtfiil contra-
diction, who was always plausible, yet never right, —
Kahele and I looked timidly over into the sunset valley
of M^ia. The "Valley of Solitude" it was caUed ;
albeit, at that moment, and with half an eye, we counted
the thirty grass-lodges of the village, and heard the
liquid tongues of a trio of waterfalls, that dived head-
first into the groves at the farther end of the valley,
where the mountain seemed to have opened its heart
wide enough to let a rivulet escape into the sea. But
the spot was a palpable and living dream, and no fond
rividet would go too hastily through it ; so there was a
glittering sort of monogram writ in water, and about it
the village lodges were clustered in a very pleasing dis-
order.

The trail dropped down the cliff below us in long,
swinging zigzags, and wound lazily through the village ;
crossed the stream at the ford ; dipped off toward the
8ea, as though the beach, shining like coarse gold, were

233 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

a trifle too lovely to be passed without recognition, and
then it climbed laboriously up the opposite cliff; and
struck off into space. In ten seconds a bird might have
s{)anned the deep ravine, and caught as much of its
loveliness as we ; but we weren't birds, and, moreover,
we had six legs apiece to look after, so we tipped off
from the dizzy ridge that overhung the valley of M^ha
to the north, and gradually descended into the heat and
silence of the place, that seemed to make a picture of
itself when we first looked down upon it from our eyrie.

Wo ibund the floor of the valley very solemn and
very lovely, when we reached it. Hiree youngsters, as
brown as berries, and without any leaves upon them,
broke loose from a banana-orchard and leaped into a low
7iOu-tree as we approached. They were a little shy of
my colour, pale-faces being rare in that vicinity. Two
women who were washing at the ford — ^and washing the
very garments they should have had upon their backs —
discovered us, and plunged into the stream with a re-
freshing splash, and a laugh apiece that was worth hear-
ing, it was so genuine and hearty. Another yoimgster
hurried off from a stone wall like a startled lizard, and
struck on his head, but didn't cry much, for he was too
frightened. A large woman lay at full length on a
broad mat, spread under a pandanus, and slept like a
turtle. I began to think there were nothing but women
and children in the solitary valley, but Kah^le had kept
an eye on the reef, and, with an air of superior intelli-
gence, he assured me that there were many men living
about there, and they, with most of the women and
children, were then out in the surf, fishing.

^' To the beach, by all means ! " cried I \ and to the

KAHELE. 233

beach we hastened, where, indeed, we found heaps of
cast-oflF raiment, and a hundred footprints in the sand.
What would Mr. Robinson Crusoe have said to that, I
wonder 1 Across the level water, heads, hands, and
shoulders, and sometimes half-bodies, were floating
about, like the amphibia. We were at once greeted with
a shout of welcome, which came faintly to us above the
roar of the surf, as it broke heavily on the reef, a half-
mile out from shore. It was drawing toward the hour
when the fishers came to land ; and we had not long to
wait, before, one after another, they came out of the sea
like so many mermen and mermaids. They were re-
freshmgly innocent of etiquette, — ^at least, of our trans-
lation of it ; and, with a freedom that was amusing as
well as a Uttle embarrassing, I was deUberately fingered,
fondled, and fussed with by nearly every dusky soul in
turn. " At last," thought I, " fate has led me beyond
the pale of civilization ; for this begins to look hke the
genuine article."

With uncommon slowness, the mermaids donned more
or less of their apparel, a few preferring to carry their
robes over their arms ; for the air was delicious, and
ropes of seaweed are accounted fiill dress in that de-
lectable latitude. Down on the sand the mermen heaped
their scaly spoils, — fish of all shapes and sizes, fish of
every colour ; some of them throwing somersaults in
the sand, like young atliletes ; some of them making
wry faces, in their last agony ; some of them lying still
and clammy, with big, round eyes like smoked-pearl
vest-buttons set in the middle of their cheeks ; all of
ihem smelling fishlike, and none of them looking very
tempting. SmaD boys laid hold on small fry, bit their

234 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

beads off, and held the silyer-coated morsels between
their teeth, like animated sticks of candy. There was a
Fridajish and Lent-like atmosphere hovering over the
spot, and I tamed away to watch some youths who were
riding surf-boards not far distant, — ^agile, narrow-hipped
youths, with tremendous biceps and proud, impudent
heads set on broad shoulders, like young gods. These
were the flower and chivalry of the M^ha blood, and
they swam like young porpoises, every one of them.

There was a break in the reef before us ; the sea knew
it, and seemed to take special delight in rushing upon
the shore as though it were about to devour sand,
savages, and everything. Kah^le and I watched the surf-
swimmers for some time, charmed with the spectacle.
Such buoyancy of material matter I had never dreamed
of. Kah^le, though much in the flesh, could not long
resist the temptation to exhibit his prowess, and having
been offered a surf-board that would have made a good
Ud to his coffin, and was itself as light as cork and as
smooth as glass, suddenly threw off his last claim to re-
spectability, seized his sea-sled, and dived with it under
the first roller which was then about to break above his
head, not three feet from him. Beyond it, a second
roller reared its awful front, but he swam under that
with ease ; at the sound of his " open sesame," its
emerald gates parted and closed after him. He seemed
some triton, playing with the elements, and dreadfully
"at home" in that very wet pkce. The third and
mightiest of the waves was gathering its strength for a
charge upon the shore. Having reached its outer
ripple, again Kahfle dived and reappeared on the other
side of the watery hill, balanced for a moment in the

KAHELE. * 235

glassy hollow, turned suddenly, and, mounting the tower-
ing monster, he lay at full length on his fragile raft,
using his arms as a bird its pinions, — ^in fact, soaring for
a moment with the wave under him. As it rose he
climbed to the top of it, and there, in the midst of foam
seething like champagne, on the crest of a rushing sea-
avalanche about to crumble and dissolve beneath him^
his surf-board hidden in spume, on the very top bubble
of all, Kah^le danced Uke a shadow. He leaped to his
feet and swam in the air, another Mercury, tiptoeing a
heaven-kissing hill, buoyant as vapour, and with a sug-
gestion of invisible wings about him, — Kah^le trans-
formed for a moment, and for a moment only ; the next
second my daring sea-skater leaped ashore, with a howl-
ing breaker swashing at his heels. It was something
glorious and almost incredible ; but I saw it with my
own eyes, and I wanted to double his salary on the spot.
Sunset in the valley of M6ha. The air fidl of floating
particles, that twinkled like diamond-dust ; the great
green chasm at the head of the valley illuminated by
one broad bar of light shot obliquely tiirough it, tipped
at the end with a shower of white rockets that fringed
a waterfall, and a fragment of rainbow like a torn
banner. That deep, shadowy ravine seemed, for a mo-
ment, some mystery about to be divulged ; but the light
faded too soon, and I never learned the truth of it. ^e
sea quieter than usual ; very Uttle soimd save the ryth-
mical vibration of the air, that suggested flowing waters
and quivering leaves ; the Kghts shifted along the upper
cliffs ; a silver-white tropic-bird sailed from cloud to
doud, swiftly and noiselessly, Kke a shooting-star. A
delicious moment, but a brief one ; soon the sun was

S36 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

down, and the deepening shadows and gathering cool-
ness set all the valley astir.

Camp-fires were kindled throughout the village;
column after column of thin blue smoke ascended in
waving spirals, separating at the top in leaf-shaped
clouds. It was like the spiritual resurrection of some
ancient palm-grove ; and when the moon rose, a little
later, flooding the Vale of SoUtude with her vague light,
the illusion was perfected; and a group of savages,
scenting the savoury progress of their supper, sat,
hungry and talkative, under every ghostly palm. Clear
voices ascended in monotonous and weird recitative ;
they chanted a monody on the death of some loved one,
prompted, perhaps, by the fimereal solemnity of the
hour ; or sang an ode to the moon-rise, the still-flowing
river or the valley of M^ha, so solitary in one sense,
though by no means alone in its loneliness.

Kahdle patronized me extensively. I was introduced
to camp after camp, and in rapid succession repeated the
experiences of a traveller who has much to answer for
in the way of colour, and the peculiar cut of his gar-
ments. I felt as though I was some natural curiosity,
in charge of the robustious Kahfele, who waxed more
and more officious every hour of his engagement ; and
his tongue ran riot as he descanted upon my character-
istics to the joy of the curious audiences we attracted.

Some hours must have passed before we thought of
sleep. How could we think of it, when every soul was
wide awake, and time alone seemed to pass us by un-
consciously? But Kah^le finally led me to a chiefs
house where, under coverlets of hvpa^ spiced with
herbs and in the midst of numerous members of the

KAHELE. 237

household, I was advised to compose my soul in peace,
and patiently await daylight. I did so, for the drowsy
sense that best illustrates the tail-end of a day's journey
possessed me, and I was finally overcome by the low,
monotonous drone of a language that I found about as
intelligible as the cooing of the multitudinous pigeon.
The boy sat near me, still descanting upon our late
experiences, our possible future, and the thousand trivial
occurrences that make the recollections of travel for
ever charming. The familiar pipe, smoked at about the
rate of three whiffs apiece, circulated freely, and kept
the air mildly flavoured with tobacco; and night, with all
that pertains to it, bowed over me, as, in an unguarded
moment, I surrendered to its narcotizing touch.

There was another valley in my sleep, like unto the one
I had closed my eyes upon, and I saw it thronged with
ancients. No white face had yet filled those savage
and sensuous hearts with a sense of disgust, which,
I believe, all dark races feel when they first behold a
bleached skin. Again the breathless heralds announced
the approach of a king, and the multitudes gathered to
receive him. 1 heard the beating of the tom-toms, and
saw the dancers ambling and posing before his august
majesty, who reclined in the midst of a retinue of obse-
quious retainers. The spearsmen hurled their spears,
and the strong men swung their clubs ; the stone-
ihrowers threw skilfully, and the sweetest singers sang
long mileB m praise of their royal guest. A cry of fear
rent the air as a stricken one fled toward the city of
refuge ; the priests passed by me in solemn procession,
their robes spotted with sacrificial blood. War canoes
drew in from the sea^ and death fell upon the valley. I

23$ SUMMER CRUISING m THE SOUTH SEAS.

heard the wail for the slanghteredy and saw the grim
idols borne forth in the arms of the triumphant ; then I
awoke in the midst of that dream-pageant of savage and
barbaric splendonr.

It was still night ; the sea was again moaning ; the
cool air of the moontain rustled in the long thatch at the
doorway ; a ripe bread-frnit fell to the earth with a load
thud. I rose from my mat and looked about me. The
room was nearly deserted ; some one lay swathed like a
mummy in a dark corner of the lodge^ but of what sex
I knew not, — ^probably one who had outliyed all sensa-
tions, and perhaps all desires; a rush, strung full of
oily kukui nuts, flamed in the centre of the room, and a
thread of black smoke climbed almost to the peak of the
roof ; but, fEtlling in with a current of fresh air, it was
spirited away in a moment.

I looked out of the low door ; the hour was such a
one as tinges the stoutest heart with superstition ; the
landscape was complete in two colours, — a moist, trans-
parent grey, and a thin, feathery silver, that seemed
almost palpable to the touch. Out on the slopes near
the stream reclined groups of natives, chatting, singing,
smoking, or silently regarding the moon. I pass^
them unnoticed ; dim paths led me through guava
jungles, under orange groves, and beside clusters of jas-
mine, overpowering in their fragrance. Against the low
eaves of the several lodges sat singers, players upon the
rude instruments of the land, and glib talkers, who
waxed eloquent, and gesticulated with exceeding grace.
Footsteps rustled before and behind me ; I stole into the
thicket, and saw lovers wandering together, locked in
each other^s embrace, and saw friends go hand-in-hand

KAHELE, a39

conversing in low tones, or perhaps mute, with an im-
pressive air of the most complete tranquillity. The
night-blooming cereus laid its ivory urn open to the
moonlight, and a myriad of crickets chirped in one
continuous jubilee. Voices of merriment were wafted
down to me ; and, stealing onward toward the great
meadow by the stream, where the sleepless inhabitants
of the valley held high carnival, I saw the most digni-
fied chiefs of M^ha sporting Uke children, while the
children capered like imps, and the whole comimunity
seemed bewitched with the glorious atmosphere of that
particular night.

Who was the gayest of the gay, and the most lawless
of the unlawful ? My boy, Kah^le, in whom I had
placed my trust, and whom, until this hour at least, I
had regarded as the most promising specimen of the re-
organized barbarians.

Perhaps it was all right; perhaps I had been counting
his steps with too much confidence ; they might have
been simply a creditable performance, the result of care-
ful training on the part of his tutors. I am inclined to
think they were ! At any rate, Kahele went clean back
to barbarism that night, and seemed to take to it amaz-
ingly. I said nothing ; I thought it wiser to seem to
hold the reins, though I hold them loosely, than to try
to check the career of my half-tamed domestic, and to
find him beyond my control; therefore I sat on one side
taking notes, and foimd it rather jolly on the whole.

The river looked like an inky flood with a broken
silver crust ; canoes floated upon its sluggish tide like
long feathers; swimmers plied up and down it, now and
then " blowing," whale-fashion, but slipping through the

240 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

water as noiselessly as trout. I conld scarcely tell
which was the more attractive, — Nature, so fragrant
and so voluptuous, or man, who had become a part of
Nature for the hour, and was very unlike man as I had
been taught to accept him.

Not till dawn did the dance or the song cease ; not
till everybody was grey and fagged, and tongues had
stopped wagging from sheer exhaustion. I returned to
my mats long ere that, to revolve in my mind plans for
the following day.

It was evident that KahSe must at once quit the
place, or go back to barbarism and stick there. I didn't
care to take the responsibility of his return to first prin-
ciples, and so ordered the animals to be saddled by sun-
rise. At that delicious moment the youngster lay like
one of the Seven Sleepers, whom nothing could awaken.
Everybody in the village seemed to be making up his
lost sleep, and I was forced to await the return of life
before pressing my claims any further.

The scorching noon drew on ; a few of the sleepers
awoke, bathed, ate of their cold repast, and slept again.
Kah^le followed suit ; in the midst of his refreshment
I suggested the advisability of instant departure ; he
hesitated. I enlarged upon the topic, and drew an en-
ticing picture of the home-stretch, with all the endearing
associations clustering about its farther end ; he agreed
to everything with a sweet and passive grace that
seemed to compensate me for the vexations of the
morning.

I went to the river to bathe while the beasts were
being saddled, and returned anon to find Kah^le sound
asleep, and as persistent in his slumbers as ever. The

KAHELE. 241

afternoon waned; I began to see the fitness of the name
that had at first seemed to me inappropriate to the val-
ley; everybody slept or lazed during the hot hours of
the day, and a census-taker might easily have imagined
the place a solitude. At sunset, there was more fishing
and more surf-swimming. It seemed to me the fish
smelt stronger, and the swimmers swam less skilfully
than on the evening previous ; possibly it was quite as
pretty a spectacle as the one that first charmed me, but
blessings are bores when they come out of season.

Night drew on apace ; the moon rose, and the in-
habitants pretended to rest, but were shortly magnetized
out of their houses, where they danced till daybreak.
The sweets of that sort of thing began to cloy, and I
resolved upon immediate action. Kah^le was taken by
the ears at the very next sunrise, and ordered to get up
ihe mules at once. He was gone nearly all day, and
came in at last with a pitiful air of disappointment that
quite unmanned me ; his voice, too, was sympathetic,
and there was something like a tear in his eye when he
assured me that the creatures had gone astray, but
might be found shortly, — ^perhaps even then they were
approaching ; and the young scamp rose to reconnoitre,
glad, no doubt, of an excuse for escaping from my
natural but ludicrous discomfiture. It is likely that my
boy Kah^le would have danced till doomsday, had I not
shown spleen. It is as likely, also, that the chief and
all his people would have helped him out in it, had I not
offered such reward as I thought suflScient to tempt
greed ; but, thank heaven, there is an end to every-
thing!

On the morning of the fourth day, two travellers

16

24t SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

might have been seen struggling np the face of the
great cliff that walls in the valley of M^ha to the south.
The one a pale-lace^ paler than usual^ ^^^guig on the
other^ a dark-face, darker than was its wont. Never
did animals so puzzle Iheir wits to know whether they
were indeed desired to hasten forward, or to turn back
at the very next crook in the traiL We were at big
odds, Eah^le and I ; for another idol of mine had sud-^
denly turned to clay, and, though I am used to that
sort of thing, I am never able to bear it with decent com-
posure. On we journeyed, working at cross purposes,
and getting nearer to the sky all the while, and finally
losing sight of the bewitching valley that had demoral-*
ized and so nearly divorced us ; getting wet in the
damp grasses on the highlands, and sometimes losing
ourselves for a moment in the clouds that lie late on the
mountains ; seeing lovely, narrow, and profound vales,
wherein the rain fell wiih a roar like hail ; where the
streams swelled suddenly like veins, and where often
there was no visible creature discernible, not even a
bird ; where silence brooded, and the world seemed
empiy,

A very long day*s journey brought us out of the
green and fertile land that lies with its face to the trade-
wind ; there the clouds gather and shed their rains ; but
all of the earth lying in the lee of the great central peak
of the island is as dust and ashes, — ^unwatered, unfruit-
ful, and uninteresting, save as a picture of deep and
dreadiiil desolation. No wonder that Kah^le longed to
tarry in the small Eden of M^ha, knowing that we
were about to journey into the deserts that lie beyond
it. No wonder that the shining shores of the valley be-

JCAHELE. 243

giiiled him, when he knew that henceforth the sea would
break upon long reaches of black lava, as unpicturesque
as a coal-heap, the path along which was pain, and
the waysides anguish of spirit ; where fruit was scarce,
and water brackish, and every edible dried and deceitfdl.

Having slept the sleep of the just, — for I felt that I
had done what I could to reclaim my backsliding
Kah^le, — I awoke on a Sabbath morning that pre-
sented a singular spectacle. Its chief features were a
glittering, metallic-tinted sea, and a smoking plain
backed by naked sand-hills. The low brush, scattered
thinly over the earth, tried hard to look green, but
seldom got nearer to it than a dusty grey. Evidently
there was no sap in those charred twigs, for they snapped
like coral when you tested their pliancy. A few huts,
dust-coloured and ragged, were scattered along the
trail ; they had apparently lost all hope, and paused by
the wayside, to end their days in despair.

The hali-^uUy or prayer-house, chief of the forlorn
huts, by virtue of extraordinary hollowness and a
ventilation that was only exceeded by all out-of-doors, —
this prayer-house, or church, was thrown open to the
public ; and, to my amazement, Kahele suggested the
propriety of our attending worship, even before the
first conch had been blown from the rude door by the
deacon himself.

We went along the chalky path that led to the front
of the house, and sat in the shelter of the eaves for an
hour or more. Seven times that conch was blown, and
on each occasion the neighbourhood responded, though
stingily ; a few worshippers would issue out of the wilder-
ness and draw slowly toward us. One or two men came

344 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

on horseback, and were happy in their mood, exhibiting
the qualities of their animals on the flats before us.
Some came on foot, with their shoes in hand ; the shoes
were carefollj put on at the church door, but put off
again a few moments after entering the rustic pews.
Dogs came, about one for ever human ; these lay all
over the floor, or mounted the seats, or were held in
the arms of the congregation, as the case might be.
Children came, and played a savage version of leap-frog
in the lee of the church, but they were bleak-looking
youngsters, not at all like the little human vegetables
that flourished in the genial atmosphere of the valley of
M^ha.

The conch was blown again ; the most melancholy
sound that ever issued from windy caviiy floated up and
down that disconsolate land, and seemed to be saying,
in pathetic gusts, ^' Come to meeting I Come to meet-
ing 1 '* Probably every one that could come had come ;
at any rate no one else followed, and, after a decent
pause, the services of the morning were begun. The
brief interval of ominous silence that preceded the
opening was enlivened by the caprices of a fractious
horse, and at least two stampedes of the canine per-
suasion, at which time the dogs seemed possessed of
devils, and were running down in a body towards the
sea, but thought better of it, and stole noiselessly back
again, one after the other, just in season for the opening
prayer, to which they entered with a low-comedy cast
of countenance, and a depressed taiL

That prayer bubbled out of the savage throat like a
clear fountain of vowels. The dignity of the man was
impressive, and his face the picture of devotion ; bis

KAHELE. 24S

deportment, likewise, was all that could be desired in
any one, under the circumstances. Either he was a
rare specimen of the very desirable convert from baiv
barism, or he was a consummate actor ; I dare not
guess which of the two beguiled me with his grave and
euphonious prayer.

I regret to state that, during the energetic expound-
ing of the Scriptures, a few of the congregation forgot
themselves and slept audibly ; a few arose and went
under the eaves to smoke ; children went down on all-
fours, and crawled under the pews in chase of pups as
restless and incorrigible as themselves. At a later
period, some one announced an approaching schooner,
and the body of the house was unceremoniously cleared,
for a schooner was as rare a visitor to that part of the
island as an angel to any quarter of the globe. Further
ceremony was out of the question, at least until the ex-
citement had subsided ; the parson, with philosophical
composure, precipitated his doxology, and we all walked
out into the drqary afternoon to watch the schooner
blowing in toward shore.

The wind was rising ; white clouds scudded over us ;
transparent shadows slid under us ; the whole earth
seemed unstable, and life scarcely worth the Hving.
Along the dead shore leaped the sea, in a careless, dare-
devil fashion ; hollow rocks spouted great mouthfuls of
spray contemptuously into the air ; columns of red
dust climbed into the sky, reeling to and fro as they
passed over the bleak desert toward the sea on the
opposite side of the island. These dust-chimneys were
continually moving over the land so long as the wind
prevailed, which was for the rest of that afternoon^ to

246 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

my oertain knowledge. In fact, the gale increased
every hour ; sheets of spray leaped over the rocky
barriers of the shore, and matted the dry grass, that
hissed like straw whenever a fresh gost struck it.

One tattered cocoa-pahn, steadfast in its mission,
though the Uving emblem of a forlorn hope, wrestled
with the tempest that threw all its crisp and rattling
leaves over its head like a pompon, and fretted it till its
slender neck twisted as though it were being throttled.
The thatched house seemed about to go to pieces, and
every timber creaked in agony; yet we gathered in its
lee, and awaited the slow approach of the schooner.
Near shore she put about, and seemed upon the point
of scudding oflF to sea again. For a moment our hearts
were in our throats; we were in danger of missing the
sensation of the season; new faces, new topics of con-
versation, and, perhaps, something good to eat, sent
thither by Providence, who seldom forgets His children
in the waste places, though I wonder ihat He lets them
lose themselves so often.

Tlio schooner rocked on the big rollers for half an
hour; a small boat put off from her, with some dark
objects seated id it; out on the great rollers the little
shallop rocked, sometimes hidden from view by an inter-
vening wave, sometimes thrown partly out of the water
as it balanced for a moment on the crest of a breaker,
but gradually drawing in toward a bit of beach, where
there was a possible chance of landing, in some shape
or other. A few rods from shore, three dusky creatures
deliberately plunged overboard and swam toward us.
We laished in a body to welcome them, — ^two women
old residents of the place, who came out of the sea

KAHELE. 147

wailing for joy at their safe return to a home no more
inviting than the one whose promment features I have
sought to reproduce. Down they sat, not three feet
from the water, that bubbled and hissed along the coarse
sand, and lifted up their voices in pitiful and impres-
sive monotones, as they recoimted in a savagely poetic
chant their various adventures since they last looked
upon the beloved picture of desolation that lay about
them.

The third passenger — ^a youngster — came to land
when he had got tired of swimming for the fun of it,
and, once more upon his native heath, he seemed at a
loss to know what to do next, but suffered himself to be
vigorously embraced by nearly everybody in sight, after
which he joined his companions with placid satisfaction,
and capered about as naturally as though nothing un*
usual had happened.

Off into the windy sea sped the small schooner, bend*
ing to the breeze as though it were a perpetual miracle
that brought her right-side-up every once in a while.
Back to the deserted prayer-house our straggling com-
munity wended its way; everything that had been said
before was said again, with some embellishments. It
was beginning to grow tiresome. I longed to plunge
into the desert that stretched around, seeking some pos-
sible oasis where the £miting spirit might reassure itself
that earth was beautiful and life a boon.

Kah^le agreed with me that this sort of thing was
growing tiresome. He knew of a good place not many
miles away; we could go there and sleep. It presented
a church and a good priest, and other inducements of an
exceedingly proper and unexceptionable character. The

248 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

prospecty thoagh nninvitiiig, was sufficient to revive me
for the moment, and daring that moment we monnted,
and were blown away on horseback. The wind howled
in onr ears ; sand-doads peppered us heavily ; small
pebbles and grit cat oar fitces ; heavier gasts than
osoal changed earth, sea, and sky into temporary chaos.
The day waned, so did our spirits, so did the life of oar
poor beasts. In the distance, the church of Kah^e^s
prophecy stood out like a small rock in a land than
which no land I wot of can be wearier. The sun fell
toward the sea; the wind subsided, though it was still
lusty and disagreeable.

We entered the church, having turned our disheart>-
ened beasts into paddock, and found a meagre and late
afternoon session, seated upon mats that covered the
earthen floor. A priest strove to kindle a flame of
religious enthusiasm in our unnatural hearts, but I fear
he sought in vain. The truth was, we were tired to
death; we needed wholesome soup, savoury meats, and
steaming vegetables, to humanize us. I didn^t want to
be a Christian on an empty stomach. The wind began
to sigh, after its passion was somewhat spent; sand sifted
over the matting with a low hiss; and the dull red
curtains, that stretched across the lower half of the win-
dows, flapped doleftilly. Overhead, the wasps had hung
their mud-baskets, and the grey atmosphere of every-
thing was depressing in the extreme. Service was soon
over; the people departed across the windy moors, with
much fluttering of gay garments. A horse stood at
pasture, with his head down, his back to the wind, and
his tail glued to his side, — ^a picture of sublime resigna-
tion. A high mound, with a sandstone sepulchre built

KAHELE. 249

in the face of it, cut off half of the very red sunset, while
a cactus-hedge, starred with pale pink blossoms, ran up
a low hill, and made silhouette pictures against the
sky.

I turned to watch a large butterfly, blown over in the
late gale, — stranded, as it were, at the church porch,
and too far gone to set sail again; a white sea-bird
wheeled over me in big circles, and screamed faintly;
something fell in the church with a loud echo, — ^a prayer-
book, probably; and then the priest came out, fastened
the door of the deserted sanctuary, and the day's duties
were done. We had nothing to do but follow him to
his small frame dwelling, where the one little window to
the west seemed to be set with four panes of burnished
gold, and some homely household shrubs in his garden-
plat shivered, and blossomed while they shivered, but
looked like so many widows and orphans, the whole of
them.

At the hospitable board life began afresh. Another
day, and we should again approach the borders of the
earthly paradise that glorified the opposite side of the
island. Kah^le's eyes sparkled; my heart leaped within
me; I felt that there was a charm in living, after all;
' and the moment was a critical one, for had the lad
begged me to return with him to the beguilements of
barbarism, I think it possible that I might have con-
sented. But he didn't 1 He was the pink of propriety,
and an honour to his progenitors. He said a brief grace
before eating, prayed audibly before retiring, was patient
to the pitch of stupidity, and amiable to the verge of
idiocy.

At last, I began to see through him. Another four^

250 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

and-twenty hours, and he would be restored to the arms
of his guardians; the sweet lanes of Tjahaina would
again blossom before him; and all that he thought to
be excellent in life would know him as it had known
him only a few weeks before. It was time that he had
again begun to walk the straight path, and he knew ii
He was Kah^le, the two-sided; Kah^le, the chameleon,
whose character and disposition partook of the colour of
his surroundings; who was pious to the tune of tiie
church-bell, yet agile as any dancer of the lascivious
hula at the thump of the tom-tom. He was a repre-
sentative worthy of some consideration; a typical Ha-
waiian whose versatility was only excelled by the plau-
sibility with which he developed new phases of his
kaleidoscopic character. He was very charming, and
as diverting in one rdle as another. He was, moreover,
worthy of much praise for his skill in playing each part
so perfectiy that to this hour I am not sure which of his
dispositions he excelled in, nor in which he was most at
home.

Kah^le, adieu I I might have upbraided thee for ihj
inconstancy, had I not been accused of that same myself.
I might have felt some modicum of contempt for thee,
had thy skin been white; but under the cover of thy
darkness sin hid her ugliness, and thy rich blood leaped
to many generous actions that a white-livered sycophant
might not aspire to. I can but forgive all, and some-
times long a little to live over the two sides of you, — ex-
tremes that met in your precious corporosity, and made
me contented with a changeful and sometimes cheerless
pilgrimage; for I knew, boy, that if I went astray you
would meet me upon the highest moral grounds; and,

KAHELE. 251

though I oould not rely upon you, somehow you came
to time when least expected, and filled me with admira-
tion and surprise, — ^a sentiment which time and absence
only threaten to perpetuato.

LOVE-LIFB IN A LANAL

T was the witching hour of sunset^ and we
sat at dinner with tearftd eyes over the
Commodore's curry. You see the Com-
modore prided himself on the strength of
this identical dish, and kept a mahogany-tinted East-
Indian steward for the sole sake of his skill in concoct-
ing the same.

We dined, as usual, in the Commodore's unrivalled
Lanaiy — the very thought of which is a kind of spiritual
feast to this hour, — and while we sat at his board we
heard for the twentieth time the monotonous recital of
his adventures by flood and field. Like most sea-
stories, his narratives were ever fresh, as though they
had been stowed away in brine, were fished out of the
vasty deep expressly for the occasion, and put to soak
again in their natural element as soon as we had tasted
their quality.

The Commodore was a roaring old sea-dog, who had
been cast ashore somewhere in the early part of the
century ; and finding himself in quarters more comfort-
able than his wildest fancy dared to paint, he resolved
to end his amphibious days on that strip of shining
beach, and never more lose sight of land imtil he should

LOVE-UFE IN A LAhAL 253

slip his cable for the last time, and sail into undiscovered
seas. Meanwhile, he entertained his friends at Wai-ki-ki,
a kind of tropical Long Branch a few miles ont of Hono-
lulu ; and the grace with which he introduced Jack-
ashore to the dreamy twilight of his Lanai is one of
Jack's deathless memories. We met the Conunodore
in the interesting character of Jack-ashore, and with
uncovered heads and hearts full of emotion entered the
Lafuiu

And now for a word to the uninitiated concerning the

Lanai in question. Off there in the Pacific, under the

vertical sun, all shadow is held at a premium. There

are stationary caravans of cocoar-trees, that seem to be

looking for their desert home, — ^weird, slender trees,

with tattered plumes, and a hopeless air about them, as

though they were bom to sorrow, but meant to make

the best of it. Still, these fine old palms cast a thin

shadow, about the size and shape of a colossal spider,

and there is no comfort in trying to sit in it. There

are likewise trees with more foliage, and vines that run

riot and blossom themselves to death ; but somehow the

sharp arrows of sunshine dart in and sting a fellow in

an unpleasant fashion, and nothing short of a good

thatch is to be reUed upon. So out from the low eaves

of the Commodore's cottage, on the seaward side, there

was a dense roof of leaves and grass, that ran clear to

the edge of the sea, and looked as though it wanted to

go farther ; but the Commodore knew it was useless to

attempt to roof over that institution. There was a

leafy tapestry hanging two feet below the roof on the

three sides ihereof, and from the fioor of the inclosure

rose a sort of trellis of woven rushes that hedged us in

854 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

to the waist. There was a wicker gate, and an open
space between the leafy stalactite and stalagmite barri-
cade for ventilation and view, and everywhere there
was a kind of semi-twilight that seamed crammed full
of dreams and deHcions indolence, — and tibis is the
Hawaiian Lanai!

Of course the Commodore always dined in his Lanau
It was like taking curry on the quarter-deck of the
" Whatyoucallher," in itie dead calm of the Indian
seas ; and when that mahogany steward entered with
turban and mock-turtle, — ^he always looked to me like
a full-blooded snake-charmer, — I had the greatest diffi-
culty in restraining myself, for it seemed to me in-
credible that any Jack-ashore could dine in a Lanai
with his Excellency, and not rise between each savory
course to make a dozen profound salaams to the fattish
gentleman at the head of the table, who was literally
covered with invisible naval buttons, and the hallucina-
tion increased as the dinner-courses multiplied.

At this stage, — -just as the snake-charmer was enter-
ing with something that seemed to have come to an
untimely end in wine-sauce, — at this stage the Commo-
dore tiumed to us as though he were about to give
some order that we might disregard at the peril of our
lives, — ^these sea-dogs never quite outgrow that sort of
thing. " Gentlemen," said he, casting a watchful and
suspicious eye over the weather-bow, " there is to be a
Luou — a native feast — ^in the adjoining premises. Will
you do me the honour to accompany me thither after
we have lighted our cigars ? "

I forget what answer we made ; but then dinner was
well on toward dessert, and our answer was immateriaL

LOVE'LIFE IN LANAL ^Sl

We had our orders, coached in courteous language, and
we were thankful for this consideration ; moreover, we
were wild to see a native feast! There is a peculiar
charm in obeying our superiors, when we happen, by
some dispensation of Divine Providence, to be exactly
of the same mind.

Black coffee was offered us, in cups of the pattern of
gull's-eggs. By this time all the sky was saffiron, all
the sea a shadow of saffiron ; and in the golden haze that
lay between, a schooner with a piratical slant to her
masts swam by, beyond the foam that hissed along the
reef. It was a wonderful picture, but it came in be-
tween the courses of the Commodore's dinner as though
it were nothing better than a panel-painting in the
after-cabin of the " Whaiyoucallher." However, as
she swung in toward the mouth of the harbour, and
passed a bottle of Burgundy in safety, but seemed in
imminent danger of missing stays abreast of an enor-
mous pyramid of fruit, — ^from the Commodore's point
of sight, you know, — ^the old gentleman lost his temper,
and gave an order in such peremptory terms that I
cheerfully refrain from reproducing it on this occasion.
To cover our confusion, we immediately adjourned to
the native feast.

Hawaiian feast days are not set do ^vn in the calendar.
Somebody's child has a birthday, or there is a new
house that needs christening ; or perhaps a church is ^
in want, and the feast can net a hundred or two dollars
for it, — since all the eatables in such cases are donated,
and the eaters enter to the feast with the payment of
one dollar per head. Our feast was not sanctified ; a
chief of the best blood was in the humour to entertain

156 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS

bis friends, countrymen, and lovers. We belonged to
tbe first order; or, ratber, the Commodore was bis
friend, and we speedily became as friendly as possible.
As we entered tbe premises, it appeared to ns tbat balf
tbe island was under cover ; for limitless Lanais seemed
to run on to tbe end of time in bewitcbing vistas.
Numberless lanterns swung soflJy in tbe evening gale.
A multitude of wbite-robed native girls passed to and
fro, witb that inimitable grace wbicb I bave always
supposed Eve copied from tbe serpent and imparted
to ber daugbters, wbo still afiect tbe modem Edens of
tbe eartb. Young Hawaiian bloods, clad in snow-wbite
trousers and ballet-sbirts, witb wreatbs of mailni around
tbeir necks, and ginger-flowers in tbeir bair, grouped
themselves along tbe evergreen corridors, and looked
unutterable things witbout any noticeable effort on
tbeir part.

Tbrougb the central corridor, under a long line of
lanterns, was spread tbe corporeal feast, and on either
side of it, in two ravenous lines, sat, tailor-fashion, the
bungry and tbe thirsty. It is useless to attempt an
idealization of the Hawaiian eater. He simply devours
whatever suits bis palate, as thougb be were a packing-
case that needed filling, and the sooner filled the more
creditable the performance. But tbe amount of filling
that be is equal to is the marvel ; and the patient per-
severance of the man, so long as tbere is a crumb left,
is something that I despair of reconciling witb any
known system of pbysiology. Tbe mastication began
early in the afternoon. It was eigbt p.m. wben we
looked in upon the orgie, and the bones were not all
picked, tbougb they seemed likely to be before mid night.

LOVE-LIFE IN A LANAL 257

" Will you eat ? " said the host. It was not etiquette
to decline, and we sat at the end of the Lanai^ with
nameless dishes strewn about us in hopeless confusion.
We dipped a finger into pink poi^ and took a pinch of
baked dog. We had limpits with rock-salt ; kukui-nuts
roasted and pulverized ; and the pale, quivering bits of
fish-flesh, not an hour dead, and still cool with the
native coolness of the sea. It was a fishful feast, any
way ; and not even the fruits or the flowers could en-
tirely alleviate the inward agony consequent upon a
morsel of raw fish, swallowed to please our host.

There was music at the farther end of the palm-leaf
pavilion, and thither we wended our way. The inner
court was festooned with flags, and covered with a large
mat. Upon the mat sat, or reclined, several chiefesses.
I am never able to account for the audacious grace of
these women, who throw themselves upon the floor and
stretch their supple limbs like tigresses, with a kind of
imperial scorn for your one-horse proprieties. Their
voluminous light garments scarcely concealed the ample
curves of their bodies, and the marvellous creatures
seemed to be breathing to slow music, while their slum-
berous eyes regarded us with a gentle indiflerence that
was more tantalizing than any other species of coquetry
that I have knowledge of.

At one side of the enclosure sat a group of musicians,
twanging upon native harps, and beating the national
calabash. Song after song was sung, pipe after pipe
was smoked, and bits of easy and playild conversation
filled the intervals. The evening waned. The eaters
and drinkers were still unsatisfied, because the eatables
and drinkables were not exhausted ; but the moon was

17

S58 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

bigb and fillip and the reef moaned most mosicallj^ and
seemed to invite ns to the shore.

Hie great charm of a native feast is the entire ab-
sence of all formality. Every man is privileged to seek
whom his heart may most desire^ and every woman
may receive him or reject him as her spirit prompts.
We noticed that the Commodore was uneasy. He was
as plamp as a seal, and the crowd oppressed him. We
resolved to get the old gentleman out of his misery, and
proposed an immediate adjournment to the beach. The
inner court was soon deserted, and our little party —
which now embraced, figuratively, several magnificent
chiefesses, as well as the primitive Hawaiian orchestra —
moved in silence toward the sea. The long, curving
beach glistened and sparkled in the moonlight. The
sea, within the reef, was like a tideless river, from whose
pellucid depths, where the coral spread its wilderness of
branches, an unearthly radiance was reflected. A fleet
of slender canoes floated to and fro upon the water, and
beyond them the creaming reef flashed like a girdle of
silver, belting us in from all the world.

The crowning luxury of savage life is the multitudi-
nous bondsman who anticipates your every wish, and
makes you blush at your own poverty of invention by
his suggestions of unimagined joys. Mats — Abroad,
sweet, and dean — ^lay under foot, and served our pur-
pose better than Persian carpets. The sea itself fawned
at our feet, and all the air was shining and soft as
though the moon had dissolved in an ecstasy, and no-
thing but a snap of cold weather could congeal her
again. Wherever we lay, pillows were mysteriously
sUpped under our heads, and the willingest hands in tbus

LOVE-LIFE IN A LANAL 259

world began an involuntary performance of the lomin
lomi. Let me not think upon the lomi-lomi, for there
is none of it within reach ; but I may say of it that,
before the skilful and magnetic hands of the manipu-
lator are folded, every nerve in the body is seized with
an intense little spasm of recognition, and dies happy.
A dreamless sleep succeeds, and this is followed by an
awakening into new life, full of proud possibilities.

We were lomirlomied to the murmurs of the reef, and
during the intervals of consciousness saw an impromptu
rehearsal of the " Naiad Queen," in operatic form. The
danciog-girls, being somewhat heated, had plunged into
the sea, and were complaining to the moon in a chorus
of fine harmonies. History does not record how long
their sea-song rang across iiie waters. I know that we
dozed, and woke to watch a silver sail wafbed along the
vague and shadowy distance like a phantom. We slept
again, and woke to a sense of silence broken only by
the unceasing monody of the reef ; slept and woke yet
again in the waning light, for the moon had sunk to the
ragged rim of an old crater, and seemed to have a large
piece bitten out of her glorious disc. Then we broke
camp by the shore, — ^for the air was a trifle chilly, — and
withdrew into the seclusion of the Commodore's Lanaiy
where we threw ourselves into hammocks and swung
until daybreak.

In those days we fed on lotus-flowers. Jack-ashore
lives for the hour only, and the very air of such a lati-
tude breathes enchantment. I believe we bathed before
sunrise, and then went regularly to bed and slept till
noon. Such were the Commodore's orders, and this is
our apology. There was a breakfast about one p.m., at

j6o summer cruising IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

which we were permitted to appear in undress. The
Commodore set the example by inviting us to the table
in an extraordinary suit of cream-coloured silk, that was
suggestive of panjamasj but might have been some
Oriental regalia especially designed for morning wear.
He looked Uke a ship under full sail, rocking good-
naturedly in a dead calm. The Commodore was exces-
sively formal at first sight, — that is, just before breakfast,
— ^but his heart warmed toward mankind in general,
and his guests in particular, as the meal progressed.
Some people never are themselves until they have
broken their fast ; they are so cranky, and seem to
lack ballast.

The snaky steward sloughed his clothes twice a day.
He was a slim, noiseless, gliding fellow at breakfast,
but he was positively gorgeous at dinner. Of course,
the Commodore had ordered this nice distinction in the
temporal affairs of his servant, for he kept everything
about the place in ship-shape, even to the flying of his
private signal from sunrise to sunset at the top of a tall
staff, that rivalled the royal ensign floating from a simi-
lar altitude not a quarter of a mile distant. His Majesty
has a summer palace in Wai-ki-ki, and it has been whis-
pered that the Commodore refused to recognize him,
and never dipped his colours as the King cantered by in
a light buggy drawn by a pair of spanking bays.

After breakfast, the cribbage-board was produced,
and for three mortal hours the Commodore kept his peg
on the steady march. At cribbage the old gentleman
was expected to lose his temper. He stormed with the
arrogance of a veteran card-player, than whom no man
is supposed to make himself more disagreeable on short

LOVE-LIFE IN A LANAL 261

notice. Lieutenant Blank was usually the victim, but
he deserved it. The true story of Lieutenant Blank —
his name is suppressed out of consideration for his
family — ^is so common in tropical seaports that I do not
hope in this epitome to offer anything novel. The
Lieutenant was a typical Jack-ashore. He had twice
the mail that came to the rest of us, and he read his
love-letters to the mess with a gusto. He boasted fresh
victims in every port, and gloried in his lack of prin-
ciple. It did not surprise me at all that the Lieutenant
had shaken his mother. In fact, under the circum-
stances, I think his mother would have been justified
in shaking him, if she could have got her hands on him.
In the love-light of the Commodore's Lanaij life was
very precious to this particular Jack-ashore. To him
a Lanai was a city of refuge, provided by an all-wise
Commodore for those fascinating heutenants who were
pursued by the chief women of the tribe ; yet he loved
to loiter without the walls, during the off-hours from
cribbage. No man so reUshed the ZomWomi; no man,
except the native-bom, so clamoured for the huhrhula;
and no man, not even the least of these, forgot himself
to the same alarming extent whenever there was the
shghtest provocation.

Of course, he met a chiefess and surrendered ; of
course, he meant in time to crush the heart that pul-
sated with the blood-royal. He simpered and tried to
turn semi-savage, and was simply ridiculous. He made
silly speeches in the worst possible Hawaiian, and
afforded unlimited amusement to the women, who are
wiser in their dark skins than the children of hght. He
tried to eat poi^ and ruined his linen. He suffered him-

ate SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

self to be wreathed and garlanded, until he was the
pictnre of a sacrificial calf. He gave gifts, and babbled
in his sleep. Bat in the honr when his triumph seemed
ineritable he was beantifiilly snubbed by his supposed
victim. The syrens of Scylla are a match for any
mariner who sails with unwadded ears. The Lieu*
tenant cannot hope to hear the last of that adventure,
though the subject is never broached by himself.

If we had dwelt a thousand years with the Commo-
dore, and sipped the elixir of life from the gourd that
hung by tlw door of the wine-closet, I suppose we
should have had the same daily and nightly experiences
to go through with, barring a slight variation in the
matter of moonshine. But there were orders superior
to the Commodore's, since he was off active duty, and
these orders demanded our reappearance on ship-
board at an early hour of the day following. There
was a farewell round of everything that had been intro-
duced during our brief stay at Wai-ki-ki, — dances,
songs, sea-baths, and flirtations. The moon rose later,
and was but a shadow of her former self; but the stars
burned brightly, and we could still trace the noiseless
flight of the solitary sail that passed like a spirit over
the dusky sea.

I know that in after years, whenever I come within
sound of surf under the prickly sunshine, my fancy
will conjure up a picture of that grass cottage on the
slope of a dazzling beach, and the portly form of the
old Commodore stored snugly in the spacious hollow of
a bamboo settee, drawn up on the stocks, as it were, for
repaint, with a bandanna spread over his face, and a
dark-eyed crouching figure beside him, fighting mosqui-

tdVE'llPJS IN A LANAL ' 2^3

toes with a tuft of parrot-feathers. No wonder that a
body-guard of some kind was necessary, for I believe
that the old Commodore's veins ran nothing but wine,
and mosquitoes are good tasters.

The picture would not be complete without the attend-
ant houris, and witli their image comes an echo of bar-
barous chants and the monotonous thump of the tom-
tom ; of swaying figures; of supple wrists; of slender,
lascivious hands tossed skilfully in the air, seeking to
interpret their pantomimic dances, and doing it with
remailiable freedom and grace. I shall hear that one
song, like an echo eternally repeated, — ^the song that
was sung by all the lips that had skill to sing, in every
valley under the Hawaiian sun. I remember it as a
refrain that was first raised in Honolulu, but for the
copyright of which the respective residents of Hawaii
and Nihau would willingly lay down their lives with the
last words of the song rattling in their throats.

" Polinanu^^ or " Cool-bosom," is a fair specimen of
the ballad literature of Hawaii, and the following free
translation will perhaps give a suggestion of the theme.
" Polir-anu " is sung by the old and decrepid, the lame,
the halt, and the blind, as well as by the merest children.
I have heard it carolled by a solitary boy tending goats
upon the breezy heights of Kaupo. I have listened to it
in the market-place, where a chorus of a dozen voices
held the customer entranced. In the high winds of the
middle channel the song is raised, as the schooner lays
over at a perilous angle, and ships water enough to
dampen the ardour of most singers. It is sung in the
church-porch, by the brackish well in the desert, under
the moonlit palms, and everywhere else. It cheers ihe

s64 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

midnight vigil of the prisoner, and makes glad the heart
of the sorrowful. It is altogether useful as well as
ornamental ; and the Hawaiian who does not number
among his accomplishments the ability to .sing ^'^Poli-
iXMA " tolerably well, is unworthy of the name.

POLI-ANU.

Bosom, here is love for you,

bosom cool as night !

How you refresh me as with dew,—
Your coolness gives delight.

Bain is cold upon the hill.

And water in the pool,
Yet all my frame is colder still

For you, O bosom cooL

Face to face beneath a bough

1 may not you embrace.

But feel a spell on breast and brow
While sitting face to face.

Thoughts in absence send a thrill

Like touch of sweeter air :
I sought you, and I seek you still,

bosom cool and fair !

That is all of it ; but your Hawaiian turns back and
begins over again, until he has enough.

I suppose it is no breach of confidence on my part to
state that the gorgeous old Commodore is dead. There
was nothing in his Lanai life to die of, except an acci-
dent, and in course of time he met with one. I forget
the nature of it, but it finished him. There was wailing

LOl E'LIFE IN A LANAI. 265

for ihree mortal days in the solemn shadow of the
Lanai; and then one of the large, motherly-looking
creatures, with numberless gauzy folds in a dress that
fell straight from her broad shoulders, moved in. After
three days of feasting, all vestiges of the Commodore*s
atmosphere had disappeared from the premises. I fancy
she always felt at home there, although she was never
known to open her lips in the presence of the Commo-
dore's guests. Life was a little more intense after that.
The snaky steward disappeared, without any sort of
warning. I have always beUeved that he crawled under
some rock, and laid himself away in a coil ; that he will
sleep for a century or so, then come out in his real
character, and astonish the inhabitants with his length
and his sUmness.

Lieutenant Blank survives, and sails the stormy seas
on a moderate salary, the major portion of which he
turns into naval buttons. I hear from him once in a
dog's age. He is first at Callao, with a daily jaunt into
Lima ; and then at one of the South Sea paradises;
next at Australia, or in the China Sea ; and in. the
future — ^heaven knows where 1 He vibrates between
the two hemispheres, working out his time, and believ-
ing himself supremely happy. I doubt not that he is
happy, being about as selfish as men are made.

As for myself, I am a landsman. Afber all that is
said, the sea is rather a bore, you know; but I do not
forget the dreamy days of calm in the flowering equa-
torial waters, nor the troubled days of storm. There
are a thousand-and-one trifling events in the fragment-
ary experiences of the seafarer that are of more import-
ance than this stray leaf, but perhaps none that will

M SVMMkk CkU/SI/^G Ihf THk soVrti SEA^,

serve my purpose better. For this yam is as fine-drawn
as ibe episodes in an out-of-the-way port, — ^with nothing
but the fiunt odour of its fruits a little over-ripe, of its
flowers a little over-blown, and a general sense of nn-
oomfortable warmth, to give it individuality. I have
found these experiences excellent memories ; for though
the dull ^ waits '* between the acts and the sluggishness
of the action at best are a little dreary at times, they
are forgotten, together with most disagreeable matter,
m warrant you. Lieutenant Blank, strutting his little
hour between-decks, or in the fleeting moments of the
delectaUe ^^ dog-watch,'' muses upon the past. When
he has aroused the fever in his blood, and can no longer
hold his tongue, he heaves an ominous sigh, knits his
brows, and, in a voice that quivers with emotion, he
whispers to the marines the beguiling romance of his
^'Ove'life in a Lanau

m A TRANSPORT.

LITTLE French aspirant de marine, with
an incipient moustache^ said to me, confi-
dentially, " Where you see the French flag,
you see France 1 " We were pacing to and
fro on the deck of a transport that swung at anchor oflF
San Francisco, and, as I looked shoreward for almost the
Last time, — ^we were to sail at daybreak for a southern
cruise, — I hugged my Ollendorf in despair as I dreamed
of " French in six easy lessons," without a master, or a
tolerable accent, or anything, save a suggestion of Babel
and a confusion of tongues at sea.

Thanaron, the aspirant in question, embraced me when
I boarded the transport with my baggage, treated me
like a long-lost brother all that afternoon, and again
embraced me when I went ashore towards eveninor to

o

take leave of my household. There was something so
impulsive and boyish in his manner that I immediately
returned his salute, and with considerable fervour, feel-
ing that kind Heaven had thrown me into the arms of
the exceptional foreigner who would, to a certain extent,
console me for the loss of my whole family. The mystery
that hangs over the departure of any craft that goes by
wind is calculated to appal the landsman; and when
the date of sailing is fixed, the best thing he can do is to

968 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

go aboard in season and compose his sonl in peace. To
be sure, he may swing at anchor for a day or two^ in
full sight of the domestic circle that he has shattered,
but he is spared the repetition of those last agonies^ and
cuts s£6rt the nnravelling hours just prior to a separa-
tion, which are probably the most unsatisfactory in life.

Under cover of darlmess a fellow can do almost any-
thing, and I concluded to go on board. There was a
late dinner and a parting toast at home, and those
ominous silences in the midst of a conversation that was
as spasmodic and disconnected and unnatural as possible.
There was something on our minds, and we relapsed in
turn and forgot ourselves in the fathomless abysses of
speculation. Some one saw me off that night, — some
one who will never again follow me to the sea, and
welcome me on my return to earth after my wandering.
We sauntered down the dark streets along the city
front, and tried to disguise our motives^ but it was hard
work. Presently we heard the slow swing of the tide
under us, and the musiy odour of the docks regaled us ;
one or two shadows seemed to be groping about in the
nei^fhbourhood, making: more noise than a shadow has
an^right to mkke.

Then came the myriad-masted shipping, the twinkling
lights in the harbour, and a sense of ceaseless motion in
waters that never can be still. We did not tarry there
long. The boat was bumping her bow against a pair
of slippery stairs that led down to the water, and I
entered the tottering thing that half simk under me,
dropped into my seat in the stem, and tried to call out
something or otiber as we shot away from the place, with
a cloud over my eyes that was darker than night itself,

IN A TRANSPORT. 269

and a cloud over my heart that was as heavy as lead.
After that there was nothing to do but to climb up one
watery swell and slide down on the other side of it, to
count the shadow-ships that shaped themselves out of
chaos as we drew near them, and dissolved again when
we had passed ; while the oars seemed to grunt in the
rowlocks, and the two jolly tars in uniform — ^they might
have been mutes, for all I know — swung to and fro, to
and fro, dragging me over the water to my "ocean
bride," — I think that is what they caU a ship, when the
mood is on them I

She did look pretty as we swam up under her. She
looked like a great BiLltouette against the steel-grey sky ;
but within was the sound of revelry, and I hastened on
board to find our Utile cabin blue with smoke, which,
however, was scarcely dense enough to muffle the
martial strains of the Marseillaise^ as shouted by the
whole mess.

Thanaron — ^my Thanaron — ^was in the centre of the
table, with his curly head out of the transom, — ^not that
he was by any means a giant, but we were all a little
cramped between-decks, — and he was leading the chorus
with a sabre in one hand and the head of the Doctor in
the other. Without the support of the faculty, he
would probably not have ended his song of triumph as
successfully as he ultimately did, when Nature herself
had fainted from exhaustion. It was the last nicrht in
port, a few friends from shore had come to dine, and
black coffee and cognac at a late hour had finished the
business.

If there is one thing in this world that astonishes me
more than another, it is the rapidity with which some

tro SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

people talk in French. Thanaron's French, when he
once got Btarted, sounded to me like the well-executed
trill of a primordonnay and quite as intelligible. The
joke of it was, that Frenchmen seemed to find no di£B-
culty in understanding him at his highest speed. On
the whole, perhaps, this isd astonishes me more than
the other.

Dinner was as far over as it could get without begin-
ning again and calling itself breakfast ; so the party
broke up in a whirlwind of patriotic songs, and, one by
one, we dropped our guests over the side of the vessel
until there was none lefb, and then we waved them a
thousand adieus, and kept up the last words as long as
we could catch the faintest syllable of a reply. There
were streaks of dull red in the east by this time, and
the outlines of the city were again becoming visible.
This I dreaded a little ; and, when our boat had re-
turned and everything was put in shipshape, I delibe-
rately dropped a tear in the presence of my messmates,
who were overcome with emotion at the spectacle ; and,
having all embraced, we went below, where I threw
myself, with some caution, into my hammock, and slept
until broad daylight.

I did not venture on deck again imtil after our first
breakfast, — an informal one, that set imeasily on the
table, and seemed inclined to make its escape from one
side or the other. Of course, we were well under way
by this time. I was assured of the fact by the reckless
rolling of the vessel and the strange and unfamiliar
feeling in my stomach, as though it were some other
fellow's stomach, and not my own. My legs were a
trifle uncertain ; my head was queer. Everybody was

mA TRANSPORT. 171

rushing everywhere, and doing things that had to be
undone or done over again in the course of the next ten
minutes. I resolved to pace the deck, which is probably
the best thing for a man to do when he goes down to
the sea in ships, and does business — ^you could hardly
call it pleasure — on great waters.

I went up the steep companion-way, and found a
deck-load of ropes, and the entire crew— dressed in blue
flannel, with broad collars — skipping about in the most
fantastic manner. It was like a ballet scene in UAfrir
caine, and highly diverting — ^for a few minutes I From
my stronghold on the top stair of the companion-way, I
cast my eye shoreward. The long coast ran down the
horizon under a broadside of breakers that threatened
to engulf the continent ; the air was grey with scatter-
ing mist ; the sea was much disturbed, and of that ugly
yellowish-green tint that signifies soundings. Over-
head, a few sea-birds whirled in disorder, shrieking as
though their hearts would break. It looked ominous,
yet I felt it my duty, as an American under the shadow
of the tricolour, to keep a stiff upper lip, — and I flatter
myself that I did so. Figuratively speaking, I balanced
myself in the mouth of the comppnion-way, with a
bottle of claret in one pocket and a French roll in the
other, while I brushed the fog from my eyes with the
sleeve of my monkey-jacket, and exclaimed with the
bard, " My native land, good-night.**

It was morning at the time, but I did not seem to
care much. In fact, time is not of the slightest con-
sequence on shipboard. So I withdrew to my ham-
mock, and having climbed into it in safety ended the
day after a miserable fashion that I have deplored a

17* SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

tbousand times sinoe, during the prouder moments of
my life.

A week passed by — I suppose it was a week, for I
could reckon only seven days, and seven nights of about
twice the length of the days — during that interval ; yei
I should, in the innocence of my heart, have called it a
month, without a moment's hesitation. We arose late
in the morning, — those of ua who had a watch below ;
ate a delightfully long and narrow breakfast, consisting
of an interminable procession of dishes in single file ;
paced the deck and canvassed the weather ; went below
to read, but talked instead ; dined as we had break-
fasted, only in a far more elaborate and protracted
manner, while a gentle undercurrent of sideKlishes lent
interest to the occasion. There was a perpetual stream
of conversation playing over the table, from the moment
that heralded the soup until the last drop of black cofiee
was sopped up with a bit of dry bread. By the time
we had come to cheese, everybody felt called upon to
say his say, in the face of everybody else. I alone kept
my place, and held it because the heaviest English I
knew fell feebly to the floor before the thunders of those
five prime Frenchmen, who were flushed with enthusi-
asm and good wine. I dreamed of home over my
cigarette, and tried to look as though I were still in-
terested in life, when, Heaven knows, my face was more
like a half-obliterated cameo of despair than anything
human. Thanaron, my foreign afiinity, now and then
threw me a semi-English nut to cradk, but by the time
I had recovered myself, — ^it is rather embarrassing to be
assaulted even in tiie most friendly manner with a batch
of broken English, — ^by the time I had framed an intel-

TN A TRANSPORT, 273

Hgible response, Thanaron was in the heat of a fresh
argument, and keeping np a running fire of smaU shot
that nearly floored the mess.

But there is an end even to a French dinner, and we
ultimately adjourned to the deck, where, about sunset,
everybody took his station while the Angelus was said.
Then twilight, with a subdued kind of skylarking in the
forecastle, and genteel merriment amidships, while
Monsieur le Capitaine paced the high quarter-deck with
the shadow of a smile crouching between the fierce
jungles of his intensely black side-whiskers. Ah, sir, it
was something to be at sea in a French transport with
the tricolour flaunting at the peak ; to have four guns
with their mouths gagged, and oilcloth capes lashed
snugly over them ; to see everybody in uniform, each
having the profoimdest respect for those who ranked a
notch above him, and having, also, an ill-disguised con-
tempt for the unlucky fellow beneath him I This spirit
was observable from one end of the ship to the other,
and, sirs, we had a little world of our own revolving
on a wabbUng axis between the staimch ribs of the old
transport "Chevert."

We were bound for Tahiti, God willing and the winds
favourable ; and the common hope of ultimately find-
ing port in that paradise was all that held us together
through thick and thin. We might wrangle at dinner,
and come to breakfast next morning with bitterness in
our hearts ; we might sink into the bottomless pit of
despond ; we might revile Monsieur le Capitaine and
Monsieur le CuisinieVy including in our anathemas the
elements and some other things ; they (the Frenchmen)
might laugh to scorn the great American people, —

18

274 SUMMER CRUISING M THE SOUTH SEAS.

and they did it> two or three times- and I, in my
turn, might feel a secret contempt for Paris, with-
out having the power to express the same in tolerable
French, so I felt it, and held my tongue. Even Thana-
ron gave me a French shrug now and then that sent
the cold shivers fcough me ; but there was sure to
come a sunset Kke a sea of fire, at which golden hour
we were marshalled amidships, and stood with un-
covered heads and the soft light playing over us, while
the littlest French boy in the crew said the evening
prayer with exceeding sweetness, — ^being the youngest,
he was the most worthy of saying it, — and then we all
crossed ourselves, and our hearts melted within us.

There was something in the delicious atmosphere,
growing warmer every day, and something in the
dehcious sea, that was beginning to rock her floating
gardens of blooming weed under our bows, and some-
thing in the aspect of Monsieur le Capitaine, with, his cap
off and a shadow of prayer softening his hard, proud
face, that unmanned us ; so we rushed to our own little
cabin and hugged one another, lest we should forget how
when we were restored to our sisters and our sweet-
hearts, and everything was forgiven and forgotten in
one intense moment of French remorse.

Who took me in his arms and carried me the length
of the cabin in three paces, at the imminent peril of my
life ? Thanaron I Who admired Thanaron's gush of
nature, and nearly squeezed the life out of him in the
vain hope of making their joy known to him ? Every-
body else in the mess I Who looked on in bewilder^
ment, and was half glad and half sorry, though more
glad than sorry by half, and wondered all the whfle

m A TRANSPORT. 27$

what was coming next? Bless you, it was 1 1 And we kept
doing that sort of ihing until I got very used to it, and
by the time we sighted the green sunmiits of Tahiti, my
range of experience was so great that nothing could
touch me further. It may not be that we were governed
by the laws of ordinary seafarers. The " Chevert " was
shaped a little like a bath-tub, with a bow like a duck's
breast, and a high, old-fashioned quarter-deck, resembling
a Chinese junk with a reef in her stem. Forty bold
sailor-boys, who looked as though they had been built
on precisely the same model and dealt out to the
government by the dozen, managed to keep the decks
very clean and tidy, and the brass-work in a state of
dazzling brightness. The ship was wonderfully well-
ordered. I could tell you by the sounds on deck, while
I swung in the comfortable seclusion of my hammock,
just the hour of the day or night, but that was after I
had once learned the order of events. There was the
Sunday morning inspection, the Wednesday sham naval
battle, the prayers night and morning, and the order to
shorten sail each evening. Between times the decks
were scrubbed and the whole ship renovated; sometimes
the rigging was darkened with drying clothes, and
sometimes we felt like ancient mariners, the sea was so
oily, and the air so hot and still. There was nothing
stirring save the sea-birds, who paddled about like tame
ducks, and the faint, thin thread of smoke that
ascended noiselessly from the dainty rolls of tobacco in
the fingers of the entire ship's crew. In fact, when we
moved at all in these calm waters, we seemed to be pro-
pelled by forty-cigarette power, for tiiere was not a
breatJi of air stirring.

276 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

It was at such times that we fought our bloodless
battles. The hours were ominous ; breakfast did not
S(»em half a breakfast, because we hurried through it with
the dreadful knowledge that a conflict was pending, and
possibly — though not probably — ^we might never gather
at that board again, for a naval engagement is some-
thing terrible, and life is uncertain in the fairest weather.
Breakfast is scarcely over when the alarm is given, and
with the utmost speed every Frenchman flies to his post-
Already the horizon is darkened with the Prussian navy,
yet our confidence in the staunch old "Chevert," in
each particular soul on board, and in our undaunted
leader, — Monsieur le Capitaine, who is even now scouring
the sea with an enormous marine glass that of itself
is enough to strike terror to the Prussian heart, — our
implicit confidence in ourselves is such that we smilingly
await the approach of the doomed fleet. At last they
come within range of our guns, and the conflict begins.
I am unfortunately compelled to stay beneath the hatches.
A sham battle is no sight for an inexperienced landsman
to witness, and, moreover, I should doubtless get in the
way of the frantic crew, who seem resolved to shed the
last drop of French blood in behalf of la belle France.

Marine engagements are, as a general thing, a great
bore. The noise is something terrific ; ammunition is
continually passed up through the transom over our
dinner-table, and a thousand feet are rushing over the
deck with a noise as of theatrical thunder. The en-
gagement lasts for an hour or two. Once or twice we
are enveloped in sheets of flame. We are speedily
deluged with water, and the conflict is renewed with
the greatest enthusiasm. Again, and again, and again^

— IN A TRANSPORT, 277

we pour a broadside into the enemy's fleet, and always
with terrific effect. We invariably do ourselves the
greatest credit, for, by the time our supplies are about
exhausted, not a vestige of the once glorious navy of
Prussia remains to tell the tale. The sea is, of course,
blood-stained for miles aroimd. The few persistent
Prussians who attempt to board us are speedily de-
spatched, and allowed to drop back into the remorseless
waves. A shout of triumph rings up from our tri-
umphant crew, and the play is over.

Once more the hatches are removed ; once more I
breathe the sweet air of heaven, for not a grain of
powder has been burned through all this fearful con-
flict ; once more my messmates rush into our little
cabin and regale themselves with copious draughts of
absinthe, and I am pressed to the proud bosom of
Thanaron, who is restored to me without a scar to dis-
figure his handsome little body. I grew used to these
weekly wars, and before we came in sight of our green
haven, there was not a Prussian left in the Pacific. It
is impossible that any nation, though they be schooled
to hardships, coTild hope to survive such a succession of
disastrous conflicts. On the whole, I like sham battles ;
they are deuced exciting, and they don't hurt.

How different, how very different those sleepy days
when we were drifting on towards the Marquesas Is-
lands ! The silvery phaetons darted overhead like day-
stars shooting from their spheres. The seaweed grew
denser, and a thousand floating things, — ^broken branches
with a few small leaves attached, the husk of a cocoa-
nut, or straws such as any dove from any ark would be
glad to seize upon, — these gave us ample food for specu-

JjS SUMMER CRUISIAG IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

lation. "Piloted by the slow, tuiwillmg winds," we
Game dose to the star-lit Kouka Hiva, and shortened
sail right under its fragrant shadow. It was a glorious
night There was the subtile odour of earth in the
warm, faint air, and before us that impenetrable shadow
that we knew to be an island, jet whose outlines were
traceable only by the obliterated stars.

At sunrise we were on deck, and, looking westward,
saw the mists melt away like a veil swept from before
the face of a dusky Venus just rising from the waves.
The island seemed to give out a kind of magnetic heat
that made our blood tingk. We gravitated toward it
with an almost irresistibk impulse. Something had to
be done before we yielded to the fascinations of this
savage enchantress. Our course lay to the windward
of the south-eastern point of the land; but, finding that
we could not weather it, we went off before the light
wind and drifted down the northern coast, swinging an
hour or more under the lee of some parched rocks, eye-
ing the " Needles," — ^the slender and symmetrical peaks
so called, — and then we managed to work our way out
into the open sea again, and were saved.

Valleys lay here and there, running back from the
shore with green and inviting vistas ; slim waterfalls
made one desperate leap from the clouds and buried
themselves in the forests hundreds of feet below, where
they were lost for ever. Eain-clouds hung over the
moimtains, throwing deep shadows across the slopes
that but for this relief would have been too bright for
the sentimental beauty that usually identifies a tropical
island.

I happened to know something about the place, and

IN A TRANSPORT. yj^

marked every inch of the scorching soil as we floated
past groves of rosewood, sandal-wood, and a hundred
sorts of new and strange trees, looking dark and velvety
in the distance ; past strips of beach that shone like
brass^ while beyond them the cocoa-palms that towered
above the low, brown huts of the natives seemed to
reel and nod in the intense meridian heat. A moist
cloud, far up the mountain, hung above a serene and
sacred haunt, and under its shelter was hidden a deep
valley, whose secret has been carried to the ends of the
earth ; for Herman Melville has plucked out the heart
of its mystery, and beautiful and barbarous Typee lies
naked and forsaken.

I was rather glad we could not get any nearer to
it, for fear of dispelling the ideal that has so long
charmed me. Catching the wind again, late in the
afternoon, we lost the last outline of Nouka Hiva in the
soft twilight, and said our prayers that evening as much
at sea as ever. Back we dropped into the solemn round
of uneventful days. Even the sham battles no longer
thrilled us. In fact, the whole affair was a little too
theatrical to bear frequent repetition. There was but
one of our mess who could muster an episode whenever
we became too stagnant for our health's good, and this
was our first officer, — a tall, slim fellow, with a warlike
beard, and very soft, dark eyes, whose pupils seemed to
be floating aimlessly about under the shelter of long
lashes. His face was in a perpetual dispute with itself,
and I never knew which was the right or the wrong

side of him. B was the happy possessor of a tight

little African, known as Nero, although I always looked
upon him as so much Jamaica ginger. Nero was as

S80 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

handsome a specimen of tangible darkness as you will

sight in a smnmer's croise. B loved with the

ardour of his vacillating eyes, yet governed with the
rigour of his beard. Nero was consequently prepared
for any change in the weather, no matter how sudden
or uncalled for. In the equatorial seas, while we sailed
to the measure of the Ancient Mariner, B sum-
moned Nero to the sacrifice, and, having tortured him
to the extent of his wits, there was a reconciliation
more ludicrous than any other scene in the farce. Tt

was at such moments that B 's eyes literally swam,

when even his beard wilted, while he told of the thou-
sand pathetic eras in Nero's Ufe, when he might have
had his Uberty, but found the service of his master more
beguiling ; of the adventures by flood and field, where

B was distinguishing himself, yet at his side,

through thick and thin, struggled ihe faithful Nero.
Thus B warmed himself at the fire his own enthu-
siasm had kindled on the altar of self-love, and every
moment added to his fervour. It was the yellow fever,
and the cholera, and the smallpox, that were powerless
to separate that faithful slave from the agonizing bedside
of his master. It was shipwreck, and famine, and the
smallest visible salary, that seemed only to strengthen
the ties that bound them the one to the other. Death —

cruel death — alone could separate them ; and B

took Nero by the throat and kissed him passionately
upon his sooty cheek, and the floating eyes came to a
standstill with an expression of virtuous defiance that
was calculated to put all conventionalities to the blush.
We were awed by the magnanimity of such conduct,
imtil we got thoroughly used to it, and then we were

IN A TRANSPORT. 281

Simply entertained. We kept looking forward to the
conclusion of the scene, which usually followed in the

course of half an hour. B having fondled Nero to

his heart's content, and Nero having become somewhat
bored, there was sure to arise some mild disturbance,

aggravated by both parties, and B , believing he

had endured as much as any Frenchman and first officer
is expected to endure without resentment, suddenly
rises, and, seizing Nero by the short, wiry moss of his
scalp, kicks him deliberately from the cabin, and re-
turns to us bursting with indignation. This domestic
equinox we soon grew fond of, and, having become
familiar with all its signals of approach, we watched
with agreeable interest the inevitable climax. It was
well for Nero that Nature had provided against any
change of colour in his skin, for he must have borne the
sensation of his chastisement for some hours, though he
was unable to give visible expression of it. By-and-by

came B 's own private birthday. Nothing had been

said of it at table, and, in fact, nothing elsewhere, that I
remember ; but Nero, who had survived several of those
anniversaries, bore it in mind, and our dinner was some-
thing gorgeous — ^to look at 1 Unhappily, certain neces-
sary ingredients had been unavoidably omitted in the
concocting of the dessert, ornamental pastry not being

set down in our regular bill of fare ; but B ate of

pies that were built of chips, and of puddings that were
stufied with sawdust, imtil I feared we should be called
upon to mourn the loss of a first officer before morning.
Moreover, B insisted that everything was unsur-
passed ; and, heaven be thanked ! I believe the pastry
could easily lay daim to that distinction. At any rate,

aSa SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

never before or since have I laid teeth to snch a Dead

Sea dessert. At this point, B naturally called Nero

to him and thanked him, with moist and truthfol eyes,
and the ingenuous little Jamaican dropped a couple of
colourless tears that would easily have passed for any-
body's anywhere. For this mutual exhibition of senti-
ment every one of us was duly grateful, and we never »

afterward scorned B for his eccentricities, since we '

knew him to be capable of genuine feeling. Moreover,
he nearly died of his birthday feast, yet did not once
complain of the unsuspecting cause of all his woe, who
was at his side night and day, anticipating all his wishes,
and deploring the unaccountable misfortunes of his
master.

So the winds blew us into the warm south latitudes.
I was getting restless. Perhaps we had talked ourselves
out of legitimate topics of conversation, and were forcing
the social element. It was tedious beyond expression,
passing day after day within sound of the same voices,
and being utterly unable to flee into never so small a
solitude, for there was not an inch of it on board.
Swinging at night in my hammock between decks,
wakefully dreaming of the future and of the past, again
and again I have stolen up on deck, where the watch lay
in the moonlight, droning their interminable yams and
smoking their perpetual cigarettes, — for French sailors
have privileges, and improve them with considerable
grace.

It was at such times that the wind sung in the rig-
ging, with a sound as of a thousand swaying branches
full of quivering leaves, — -just as the soft gale in the gar-
den groves suggests pleasant nights at sea, the vibration

Ihr A TRANSPORT. 283

of the taut stays, and the rush of waters along the
smooth sides of the vesseL A ship's rigging is a kind
of sea-harp, played upon by the four winds of heaven.

The sails were half in moonlight and half in shadow.
Every object was well defined, and on the high quarter-
deck paced Thanaron, his boyish figure looking strangely
picturesque, for he showed in every motion how deeply
he felt the responsibility of his office. There was usually
a faint light in the apartments of Monsieur le Capitaine,
and I thought of him in his gold lace and dignity, poring
over a French novel, or cursing the light winds. I used
to sit upon the neck of a gun, — one of our four dum-
mies, that were never known to speak louder than a
whisper, — ^lay my head against the moist bulwarks, and
listen to the half-savage chants of the Tahitian sailors
who helped to swell our crew. As we drew down
toward the enchanted islands they seemed fairly be-
witched, and it was with the utmost difficulty that they
could keep their mouths shut until evening, when they
were sure to begin intoning an epic that usually lasted
through the watch. Sometimes a fish leaped into the
moonlight, and came do^vn with a splash ; or a whale
heaved a great sigh dose to us, and as I looked over the
bulwarks, I would catch a gUmpse of the old fellow just
going down, Uke a submerged island. Occasionally a
flying-fish — a kind of tangible moonbeam — ^fell upon
deck, and was secured by one of the sailors ; or a bird,
sailing about with an eye to roosting on one of our
yards, gave a plaintive, ominous cry, that was echoed in
falsetto by two or three voices, and rung in with the
Tahitian cantata of island delights. Even this sort of
thing lost lis charm after a little. Thanaron could not

S84 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

speak to me, because Thanaron was officer of the deck
at that moment, and Thanaron himself had said to me,
" Order, Monsieur, order is the first law of France I "
I had always supposed that Heaven had a finger in the
making of that law, — ^but it is all the same to a French-
man*

Most sea-days have a tedious family resemblance, their
chief characteristic being the almost total absence of any
distinguishing feature. Fair weather and foul ; sun-
light, moonlight, and starlight ; moments of confidence ;
oaths of eternal fidelity; plans for the future long
enough to crowd a century uncomfortably; relapses,
rows, recoveries ; then, after many days, the water sub-
sided, and we saw land at last.

Land, God bless it I Long, low coral reefs, with a
strip of garden glorifying them ; rocks towering out of
the sea, palm-crowned, foam-fringed ; wreaths of verdure
cast upon the bosom of the ocean, for ever fragrant in
their imperishable beauty ; and, beyond and above them
all, gorgeous and glorious Tahiti.

On the morning of the thirty-third d^,y out, there
came a revelation to the whole ship's company. A faint
blue peak was seen struggling with the billows ; pre-
sently it seemed to get the better of them, growing
broader and taller, but taking hours to do so. The wind
was stifl*, and the sea covered with foam ; we rolled
frightfully all day. Our French dinner lost its identity.
Soup was out of the question ; we had hard work to
keep meat and vegetables from total wreck, while we
hung on to the legs of the table with aU our strength.
How the old " Chevert " " bucked," that day, as though
conscious that for months to come she would swing in

INA TRANSPORT. 285

still waters by the edge of green pastures, where any
such conduct would be highly inappropriate.

Every hour the island grew more and more beautiful,
as though it were some lovely fruit or flower, swiftly
and magically coming to maturity. A central peak,
with a tiara of rocky points, crowns it with majesty, and
a neighbouring island of great beauty seems its faithful
attendant, I do not wonder that the crew of the
" Bounty " mutinied when they were ordered to make
sail and turn their backs on Tahiti ; nor am I surprised
that they put the captain and one or two other objec-
tionable features into a small boat, and advised them to
continue their voyage if they were anxious to do so :
but as for them, give them Tahiti, or give them worse
than death, — ^and, if convenient, give them Tahiti
straight, and keep all the rest for the next party that
came along.

As soon as we were within haQing distance, the pilot
came out and took us under his wing. We kissed the
hand of a citizen of the new world, and, for the first
time since losing sight of the dear California coast, dis-
missed it from our minds. There was very little wind
right under the great green mountains, so the frigate
" Astrea" sent a dozen boats to tow us through the
opening in the reef to our most welcome anchorage.
No Doge of Venice ever cruised more majestically than
we, and our sea-pageant was the sensation of the day.

" Click-click " went the anchor-chains through the
hawse-holes, down into a deep, sheltered bowl of the sea,
whose waters have never yet been ruffled by the storms
that beat upon the coral wall around it. Along the
crescent shores trees dropped their yellow leaves into the

386 SUMMER CRUISWG IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

water, and tried their best to bury the slim canoes drawn
up among their roots. Bejond ihis barricade of verdure
the eje caught glimpses of every sort of tropical habita-
tioQ imaginable, together with the high roofs and pon-
derous white walls of the French government buildings.
Hie foliage broke over the little town like a green sea,
and every possibility of a good view of it was lost in the
inundation. Above it towered the sublime crest of the
mountain, with a strip of doud about its middle in true
savage fashion. Perpetual harvest lay in its lap^ and it
basked in ihe smile of God.

TwiUght, fragrant and cool ; a fruity flavour in the
air, a flower-like tint in sea and sky, the ship's boat
waiting to convey us shoreward. ... Thanaron, my

Thanaron, with your arms about my neck, and B 's

arms about you, and Nero clinging to his master's knees,
— ^in fact, with everybody felicitating every other body,
because it was such an evening as descends only upon
the chosen places of the earth, and because, having com-
pleted our voyage in safety, we were all literally in a
transport I

A PRODIGAL IN TAHITI.

ET this confession be topped with a vignette
done in broad, shadowless lines, and few
of them, — something like this : —

A little, flyblown room, smelling of garlic;
I cooling my elbows on the oUy slab of a table (break-
fast for one), and looking through a window at a glaring,
whitewashed fence high enough to shut out the universe
from my point of sight. Yet it hid not all, since it
brought into relief a panting cock (with one leg in a
string), which had so strained to compress itself into a
doubtful inch of shade that its suspended claw clutched
the air in real agony.

Having dazzled my eyes with this prospect, I turned
^rratefuUy to the vanities of life that may be had for two
francs in Tahiti. Vide bill of fare : One fried egg, like
the eye of some gigantic Albino ; potatoes hollowed out
bombshell fashion, primed with liver-sausage, very inge-
nious and palatable ; the naked corpse of a fowl that
cared not to live longer, from appearances, yet looked
not happy in death.

Item : Wonder if there is a more ghastly spectacle
than a chicken cooked in the French style; its knees
drawn up on its breast like an Indian mummy, while
its blue-black, parboiled, and melancholy visage tearfully

288 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

snnwys its own unshrouded remains. After a brief
season of meditation, I said, and I trust I meant it, ^^ I
thank the Lord for all these blessings." Then I gare
the corpse of the chicken Christian bnrial under a fold
of the window curtain, disposed of the fried eye of the
Albino, and transformed myself into a mortar for the
time being, taking potato-bombshells according to my
calibre.

There was claret all the while and plenty of butterless
roll, a shaving of cheese, a banana, black coffee and
cognac, when I turned again to dazzle myself with the
white fence, and saw with infinite pity, — a sentunent
perhaps not unmixed with a suspicion of cognac or some
other temporary humanizing element, — I saw for a fact
that the poor cock had wilted, and lay flat in the san
like a last year's duster. Hat was too much for me.
I wheeled towards the door where gleamed the bay with
its lovely ridges of light ; canoes drifting over it drevr
the eye after them irresistibly; I heard the ship-calkers
on the beach making their monotonous clatter, and the
drone of the bareheaded fruitsellers squatted in rows
chatting indolently, with their eyes half shut. I could
think of nothing but bees humming over their own
sweet wares.

About this time a young fellow at the next table, who
had scarcely a mouthful of English at his command,
implored me to take beer with him; implying that we
might, if desirable, become as tight as two bricks. I
declined, much to his admiration, he regarding my refusal
as a clear case of moral courage, whereas it arose simply
and solely from my utter inability to see his treat and
go him one better.

A PRODIGAL m TAHITI. 289

An adult in Tahiti has an eating hour allotted to
him twice a day, at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. My time being
up, I returned to the store in an indifferent frame of
mind, and upon entering the presence of my employer,
who had arrived a moment before me, I was immedi-
ately covered with the deep humiliation of servitude,
and withdrew to an obscure comer, while Monsieur and
some naval guests took absinthe unblushingly, which
was, of course, proper enough in them. Call it by what
name you will, you cannot sweeten serviKty to my
taste. Then why was I there and in bondage? The
spirit of adventure that keeps life in us, yet comes near
to worrying it out of us now and then, lured me with
my handful of dollars to the Garden of the Pacific.
** You can easily get work," said some one who had
been there and didn't want it. If work I must, why
not better there than here, thought I; and the less
money I take with me the surer am I to seek that which
might not attract me under other circumstances. A
few letters which proved almost valueless ; an abiding
trust in Providence, afterward somewhat shaken I am
sorry to state, which convinces me that I can no longer
hope to travel as a shorn lamb; considerable confidence
in the good feeling of my fellow-men, together with the
few dollars above referred to, — comprised my all when
I set foot on the leaf-strewn and shady beach of Papeete.

3efore the day was over I saw my case was almost
hopeless; I was one too many in a very meagre con-
gregation of foreigners. In a week I was desperate,
with poverty and disgrace brooding like evil spirits on
either hand. Every ten minutes some one suggested
something which was almost immediately suppressed bj

X9

290 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

the next man I met, to whom I applied for fariher
information. Teach, said one : there wasnH a pupil to
be had in the dominion. Clerkships were ont of ihe
question likewise. I might keep a store, if I could get
anything to put in it ; or go farther, as some one sug-
gested, if I had money enough to get there. I thought
it wiser to endure the ills I had than fly to others that
I knew not of. In this state I perambulated the green
lanes of Papeete, conscious that I was drawing down
tons of immaterial sympathy from hearts of various
nationalities, beating to the music of regular salaries in
hard cash, and the inevitable ringing of their daily
dinner-bell; and I continued to perambulate under the
same depressing avalanches for a fortnight or more, — k
warning to the generation of the inexperienced that
persists in sowing itself broadcast upon the edges of the
earth, and learns too late how hard a thing it is to take
root under the circumstances.

One gloomy day I was seized in the marketplace and
led before a French gentleman who offered me a bed
and bo^rd for such manual compensation as I might be
able to give him in his office during the usual business
hours, namely, from daybreak to sometime in the after-
noon, unless it rained, when business was suspended,
and I was dropped until fair weather should set that
little world wagging again.

I was invited to enter into the bosom of his family,
in fact, to be one of them, and no single man could ask
to be more; to sit at Ms table and hope for better days,
in which diversion he proposed to join me with «dl his
soul.

With an emotion of gratitude and a pang at being

A PRODIGAL m TAHITL 291

tbus early a subject of cliarity, I began business in
Papeete, and learned within the hour how sharper than
most sharps it is to know only your own mother-tongue
when you're away from home.

Nightly I walked two hot and dusty miles through
groves of bread-fruit and colonnades of palms to my
new master's. I skirted, with loitering steps, a placid
sea whose crystalline depths sheltered leagues and leagues
of sun-painted corals, where a myriad fish, dyed like
the rainbow, sported unceasingly. Springs gushed from
the mountain, singing their song of joy; the winds sang
in the dark locks of the sycamore, while the palm-
boughs clashed like cymbals in rhythmical accompani-
ment; glad children chanted their choruses, and I alone
couldn't sing, nor hum, nor whistle, because it doesn't
pay to work for your board, and settle for little necessi-
ties out of your own pocket, in any latitude that I ever
heard of.

We lived in a grove of ten thousand cocoa-palms
crowning a hill-slope to the west. How all-sufficient it
sounds as I write it now, but how little I cared then,
for many reasons ! My cottage had prior tenants^ who
disputed possession with me, — ^winged tenants who
sought admission at every cranny and frequently obtained
it in spite of me; these were not angels, but hens. My
cottage had been a granary imtil it got too poor a recep-
tacle for grains, and a better shelter left it open to the
barn-fowls until I arrived. They hated me, these hungry
chickens; they used to sit in rows on the window-sill
and stare me out of countenance. A wide bedstead,
corded with thongs, did its best to furnish my apartment.
An arrow, a very narrow and thin ship's mattress, that

«9« SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

had been a bed of torture for many a seandck sonl before
it descended to me ; a flat pillow like a pancake; a
condemned horse-blanket contributed by a good-natured
Kanack who raked it from a heap of refuse in the yard,
together with two sacks of rice, the despair of those
ht»ns in the window, were all I could boast of. With
this inventory I strove (6y particular request) to be one
of those who were comfortable enough in the ch&teau
adjoining. Summoned peremptorily to dinner, I entered
a little latticed saloon connected with the chU^teau by a
covered walk, discovered Monsieur seated at table and
already served with soup and claret; the remainder of
the company helped themselves as they best could; and
I saw plainly enough that the family bosom was so
crowded already, that I might seek in vain to wedge
myself into any comer of it, at least until some vacancy
occurred.

After dinner, sat on a sack of rice in my room while
it grew dark and Monsieur received calls; wandered
down to the beach at the foot of the hill and lay a long
time on a bed of leaves, while the tide was out and the
crabs clattered along shore and were very sociable.
Natives began to kindle their evening fires of cocoanut
husks ; smoke, sweet as incense, climbed up to the
plumes of the palm-trees and was lost among the stars.
Morsels of fish and bread-fruit were ofiered me by the
untutored savage, who welcomed me to his frugal meal
and desired that I should at least taste before he broke
his fast. Canoes shot out from dense, shadowy points,
fishers standing in the bows with a poised spear in one
nand ; a blazing palm-branch held aloft in the other
shed a warm glow of light over their superb nakedness*

A PRODIGAL IN TAHITI. 293

Bathed by the sea, in a fresh, cool spring, and returned
to my little coop, which was illuminated by the glare of
fifty floating beacons; looking back from the door I
could see ihe dark outlines of the torch-bearers and
hear their signal calls above the low growl of the reef a
half-mile farther out from shore. It was a blessing to
lie awake in my little room and watch the flicker of
those fires ; to thin khow Tahiti must look on a cloud-
less night from some heavenly altitude, — the ocean still
as death, the procession of fishermen sweeping from
point to point within the reef, till the island, flooded
with starlight and torchlight, hes hke a green sea-garden
in a girdle of flame,

A shrill bell called me from my bed at dawn. I was
not unwilling to rise, for half the night I lay hke a saint
on the tough thongs, having turned over in sleep,
thereby missing the mattress entirely. Made my toilet
at a spring on the way into town ; saw a glorious sun-
rise that was as good as breakfast, and found the whole
earth and sea and all that in them is singing again
while I listened and gave thanks for that privilege. At
ten a.m. I went to breakfast in the small restaurant
where I have sketched myself at the top of this chro-
nicle, and whither we may return and begin over again
if it please you.

I was about to remark that probably most melancholy
and homesickness may be cured or alleviated by a
wholesome meal of victuals ; but I think I won't, for,
on referring to my note-book, I find that within an
hour after my return to the store I was as heart-sick as
ever, and wasn't afraid to say so. It is scarcely to be
wondered at : the sky was dark ; aboard a schooner

t94 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

some sailors were making that dolefdl whine peculiar to
them, as they hauled in to shore and tied up to a tree in
a sifting rain ; then everything was ominously still as
though something disagreeable were about to happen ;
thereupon I doubled myself over the counter like a
half-shut jack-knife, and burying my face in my hands
said to myself, " 0, to be alone with Nature 1 her
silence is religion and her sounds sweet music." After
which the rain blew over, and I was sent with a hand-
cart and one underfed Kanack to a wharf half a mile
away to drag back several loads of potatoes. We two
hungry creatures struggled heroically to do our duty.
Starting with a multitude of sacks it was quite impos-
sible to proceed with, we grew weaker the farther we
went, so that the load had to be reduced from time to
time, and I beUeve the amount of potatoes deposited by
the way considerably exceeded the amount we subse-
quently arrived at the store with. Finding life a bur-
den, and seeing the legs of the young fellow in harness
with me bend under him in his frantic efforts to get our
cart out of a rut without emptying it entirely, I resolved
to hire a substitute at my own expense, and save my
remaining strength for a new Une of business. Thus I
was enabled to sit on the wharf the rest of the after-
noon and enjoy myself devising new means of subsist-
ence and watching the natives swim.

Some one before me found a modicum of sweets in
his cup of bitterness, and in a complacent hour set the
good against the evil in single entry, summing up the
same to his advantage. I concluded to do it myself,
and did it thus : —

■ A PRODIGAL IN TAHITI a9S

Evil. Good.

I find myself in a foreign But I may do as I please in
l^d with no one to love and consequence, and it is nobody's
none to love me. business save my own.

I am working for my board But I may quit as soon as I
and lodging (no extras), and feel like it, and shall have no
fuid it very unprofitable. occasion to dun my employer

for back salary so long as I stop

with him.

My clothes are in rags. I But the weather is mild and

shall soon be without a stitch to the fig-tree flourisheth. More-

xny back. over many a good savage has

gone naked before me.

I get hungry before breakfast But fasting is saintly. Day

and feel faint after dinner, by day I grow more spiritual,

What are two meals a day to a and shall shortly be a fit subject

man of my appetite % for translation to that better

world which is doubtless the
envy of all those who have lost
it by over eating and drinking.

Nothing can exceed the satisfaction with which I
read and re-read this philosophical sununary, but I had
relapses every few minutes so long as I lived in Tahiti.
I remember one Sunday morning, a day I had all to
myself, when I cried out of ihe depihs and felt better
after it. It was a real Sunday, The fowls confessed it
by ihe indifference with which they picked up a grain
of lice now and then as though they weren't hungry.
The fiimily were inoving about in an unnatural way ;
some people are never themselves on the Lord's day.
The canoes lay asleep off upon the water, evidently con-
scious of the long hours of rest they were sure of
having. To sum it all, it seemed as tiiough the cover
had been taken off from the earth, and the angels were

J96 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS

sitting in big circles looking at us. Our dock had mn
down, and I found mjself half an hour too early at
mass. Some diminutiye native children talked together
with infinite gesticulation, like little old men. At every
lag in the conyersation, two or three of them would
steal away to the fence that surrounded the church and
begin diligentiy counting the pickets thereof. They
were evidentiy amazed at what they considered a sin-
gular coincidence, namely, that the number of pickets,
beginning at the firont gate and counting to the right,
tallied ezactiy with the do. do. beginning at the do. do.
and counting to the left ; while they were making
repeated efibrts to get at the heart of tins mystery, the
priest rode up on horseback, dismounted in our midst,
and we all followed him into chapel to mass.

A young Frenchman ofiered me holy-water on the tips
of his fingers, and I immediately decided to confide in
him to an unlimited extent if he gave me the oppor-
tuniiy. It was a serious disappointment when I found
later, that we didn't know six words in any common
tongue. Concluded to be independent, and walked off
by myself. Got very lonesome immediately. Tried to
be meditative, philosophical, botanical, conchological,
and in less than an hour gave it up, — ^homesick again,
by Jove I

Strolled to the beach and sat a long time on a bit of
wreck partiy imbedded in the sand ; consoled by the
surpassing radiance of sunset, wondered how I could
ever have repined, but proceeded to do it again as soon
as it grew dark. Some natives drew near, greeting me
kindly. They were evidentiy lovers; talked in low
tones, deeply interested in the most trivial things, such

A PRODIGAL IN TAHITL ^97

as a leaf falling into the sea at our feet and floating
st^n up, like a bowsprit; he probably made some poetic
allusion to it, may have proposed braving the seas with
her in a shallop as fairy-like, for both fell a-dreaming
and were silent for some time, he worshipping her with
fascinated eyes, while she, woman-like, pretended to be
all unconscious of his admiration.

Silently we sat looking over the sea at Moorea, just
visible in the light of the young moon, like a spirit
brooding upon the waters, till I broke the spell by say-
ing " Good-night," which was repeated in a chorus as I
withdrew to my coop and found my feathered guests
had b€$b.ten in the temporary barricade erected in the
broken window, entered and made themselves at home
during my absence, — ^a fact that scarcely endeared the
spot to me. Next morning I was tmusually merry ;
couldn't tell why, but tried to sing as I made my toilet
at the spring; laughed nearly all the way into town,
saying my prayers, and blessing God, when I came sud-
denly upon a horse-shoe in the middle of the road.
Took it as an omen and a keepsake ; horse-shoes aren't
shed everywhere nor for everybody. I thought it the
prophecy of a change, and at once cancelled my engage-
ment with my employer without having set foot into
his house farther than the dining-room, or made any
apparent impression upon the adamantine bosom of hb
family.

After formally expressing my gratitude to Monsieur
for his renewed offers of hospitality, I turned myself
into the street, and was once more adrift in the world.
For the space of three minutes I was wild with joy at
the thought of my perfect liberty. Then I grew ner-

99S SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

vouS) began to feel nnhappy, naj, even gniltj, as
thougb I had thrown up a good thing. Concluded it
was rash of me to leave a situation where I got two
meals and a mattress, with the privilege of washing at
my own expense. Am not sure that it wasn't unwise,
for I had no dinner that afternoon ; and having no bed
either, I crept into the verandah of a house to let, and
dozed till daybreak.

There was but one thing to live for now, namely, to
see as much of Tahiti as possible, and at my earliest
convenience to return like the prodigal son to that
father who would doubtless feel like killing something
appropriate as soon as he saw me coming. I said as
much to a couple of Frenchmen, brothers, who are
living a dream-life over yonder, and whose wildest
species of dissipation for the last seven years has been
to rise at intervals from their settees in the arbour, go
deliberately to the farther end of the garden and eat
several man£:oes in cold blood.

To comprehend Tahiti, a man must lose himself in
forests whose resinous boughs are knotted with ribbons
of sea-grass ; there, overcome by the music of sibilant
waters sifting through the antlers of the coral, he is
supposed to sink upon drifts of orange-blossoms only to
be resuscitated by the spray of an approaching shower
crashing through the green solitudes like an army with
chariots, — so those brothers said, with a mango poised
in each hand ; and they added that I should have an
official document addressed to the best blood in the
kingdom, namely. Forty Chiefs of Tahiti, who would
undoubtedly entertain me with true barbarian hospi-
tality, better the world knows not. There was a delay

~ - A PRODIGAL IN TAHITI. 299

for some reason ; I, rather impatient, and scarcely
hoping to receive so graceful a compliment from head-
quarters, trudged on alone with a Ught piirse and an
infinitesimal bimdle of necessities, caring nothing for
the weather nor the number of miles cleared per day,
since I laid no plans save the one to see as much as
I might with the best grace possible, keeping an eye
on the road for horse-shoes. Through leagues of ver-
dure I wandered, feasting my five senses and finding
life a holiday at last. There were numberless streams
to be crossed, where I loafed for hours on the bridges,
satisfying myself with sunshine. Not a savage in the
land was freer than I. No man could say to me, " Why
stand ye here idle ? " for I could continue to stand as
long as I liked and as idly as it pleased me in spite of
him I There were bridgeless streams to be forded ; but
the Tahitian is a nomad continually wandering from one
edge of his fruitful world to the other ; moreover, he is
the soul of peace towards men of good-will : I was in-
variably picked up by some bare-backed Hercules, who
volunteered to take me over the water on his brawny
brown shoulders, and could have easily taken two like
me. It was good to be up there while he strode
through the swift current, for I felt that he was per-
fectly able to carry me to the ends of the earth without
stopping, and that sense of reliance helped to reassure
my faith in humanity.

As I wandered, from most native houses came the
invitation to enter and eat. Night after night I found
my bed in the comer of some dwelling whither I had
been led by the master of it with imaffected grace. It
wasn't simply showing me to a spare room, but rather

joo SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

unrolling the best mat and turning everything to my
account so long as it pleased me to tarry. Sometimes
the sea talked in its sleep not a rod from the house ;
frequently the mosquitoes accepted me as a delicacy
and did their best to dispose of me. Once I awoke
with a headache, the air was so dense with the odour
of orange-blossoms.

There was frequently a strip of blue bay that ebbej
and flowed languidly, and had to be lunched with ; or
a very deep and melodious spring, asking for an in-
terview, and, I may add, it always got it. I remember
one miniature castle built in the midst of a grassy
Venice by the shore. Its moats, shining with gold-
fish, were spanned with slender bridges , toy fences of
bamboo enclosed the rarer clumps of foliage ; and there
was such an air of tranquillity pervading it that I
thought I must belong there. Something seemed to
say, ^' Come in." I went in, but left very soon ; the
place was so fidry-like, I felt as though I were liable
to step through it and come out on some other side,
and I wasn't anxious for such a change.

I ate when I got hungry, a very good sort of a meal,
consisting usually of a tiny piglet cooked in the native
fashion, swathed in succulent leaves and laid between
hot stones till ready for eating ; bread-fruit, like mashed
potato, but a great deal better ; orange-tea and cocoa'
milk, surely enough for two or three francs. Took i^
sleep whenever sleep came along, resting always till the
clouds or a shadow from the mountain covered me so as
to keep (iool and comfortable. Natives passed me with
salutations. A white man now and then went by barely
nodding, or more frequently eyeing me with suspicion,

A PRODIGAL IN TAHITI. 301

and giving me as miict of his dust as he found con-
venient. In the wider fellowship of nature, I forswore
all blood relations, and blushed for those representatives
of my own colour as I footed it right royally. There-
fore, I was enabled to scorn the fellow who scorned me
while he flashed the steel hoofs of his charger in my
face and dashed on to the village we were both ap-
proaching with the dusk.

What a spot it was! A long lane as green as a
spring meadow, lying between wall-like masses of foli-
age whose deep arcades were frescoed with blossoms
and festooned with vines. It seemed a pathway leading
to infinity, for the blood-red bars of sunset glared at its
farther end as though Providence had placed them there
to keep out the unregeneiated. Not a house visible all
this time, nor a human, though I was in the heart of
the hamlet. Passing up the turf-cushioned road, I
beheld, on either hand, through a screen of leaves, a log
spanning a rivulet that was sofUy singing its monody ;
at the end of each log the summer-house of some
Tahitian, who sat in his door smoking complacently.
It was a picture of still-life with a suggestion of possible
motion ; a village to put into a greenhouse, water, and
keep fresh for ever. Let me picture it once more, —
one mossy street between two babbling brooks, and
every house thereof set each in its own moated wilder-
ness. This was Papeali.

like rows of cages fiill of chirping birds those bamboo
huts were distributed up and down the street. As I
walked I knew something would cause me to turn at
the right time and find a new friend ready to receive
me, for it always does. So I walked slowly, and without

JM SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

hesitation or impatience, until I tamed and met him
coming ont of hig cage, crossing the rill by his log and
holding ont his hand to me in welcome. Back we went
together, and I ate and slept there as though it had
been arranged a thousand years ago ; perhaps it was I
There was a racket up at tiie farther end of the lane, by
the chief's house ; songs and nose-flutings upon the
night air ; moreover, a bonfire, and doubtless much
nectar, — ^too much, as usual, for I heard such cheers as
the soul gives when it is careless of consequences, and
caught a glimpse of the joys of barbarism such as ev^i
we poor Christians cannot whoUy withstand, but turning
our backs think we are safe enough. Oommend me to
him who has known temptation and not shunned it, but
actually withstood it I

It was the dance, as ever it is the dance where all the
aspirations of the soul find expression in the body ; those
bodies that are incarnate souls, or those souls that are
spiritualized bodies, inseparable, whatever they are, fi)r
the time being. The fire glowed fervently ; bananas
hung out their tattered banners like decorations ; palms
rustled their silver plumes aloft in the moonli^t ; the
sea panted on its sandy bed in heavy sleep ; the night-
blooming cereus opened its waxen chambers and gave
forth its treasured sweets. Circle after circle of swart
savage faces were turned upon the flame-lit arena where
the dancers posed for a moment with their light drapery
gathered about them and held carelessly in one hand.
The music again sounded a reiteration of chords caught
from the birds' treble and the wind's bass ; full and
resounding syllables, richly poetical, telling of orgies
and of the mysteries of iiie forit^idden revds in the

A PRODIGAL IN TAHITI. 303

charmed valleys of tiie gods, hearing which it were im-
possible not to be wrought to madness ; and the dancers
thereat went mad, dancing with infinite gesticulation,
dancing to whirlwinds of applause till the undulation of
their bodies was serpentine, and at last in frenzy they
shrieked with joy, threw off their garments, and were
naked as the moon. So much for a vision that kept me
awake till morning, when I plodded on in the damp
grass and tried to forget it, but couldn't exactly, and
never have to this hour. Went on and on over more
bridges spanning still-flowing streams of silver, past
springs ihat lay Uke great crystals framed in moss
under dripping, fern-clad cliflfe that the sun never
reaches. Came at last to a shining, whitewashed fort,
on an eminence that commands the isthmus connecting
the two hemispheres of Tahiti, where down I dropped
into a narrow valley ftdl of wind and discord and a kind
of dreary neglect that made me sick for any other
place. More refreshment for the wayfarer, but to be
paid for by the dish, and therefore Umited. Was obliged
to hate a noisy fellow with too much bushy black beard
and a freckled nose, and to hke another who eyed me
kindly over his absinthe, having first mixed a glass for
me. A native asked me where I was going ; being
unable to give any satisfactory answer, he conducted
me to his canoe, about a mile distant, where he cut a
saphng for a mast, another for a gaff, twisted, in a few
moments, a cord of its fibrous bark, rigged a sail of his
deeping-blanket, and we were shortly wafted onward
before a hght breeze between the reef and shore.

Three of us with a buU-pup in the bows dosied imder
the afternoon sun. He of the paddle awoke now and

304 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

then to shift saily beat the sea impetaonsly for a few
seconds, and fell asleep again. Voices roused me
occasionally, greetings from colonies of indolent
Kanacks on shore, whose business it was to sit there till
thej got hungry, kughing weariness to scorn.

Close upon our larboard-bow lay one of the islands
that had bewitched me as I passed the shore but a few
days previous ; under us the measureless gardens of the
sea unmasked a myriad imperishable blossoms, centuries
old some of them, but as fair and fresh as though bom
within the hour. All that afternoon we drifted between
sea and shore, and beached at sunset in a new land.
Footsore and weary, I approached a stable from which
thrice a week stages were despatched to Papeete.

A modem pilgrim finds his scrip cumbersome if be
has any, and deems it more profitable to pay his coachr
man than his cobbler.

I climbed to my seat by the jolly French driver, who
was continually chatting with three merry nuns sitting
just back of us, returning to the convent in Papeete
after a vacation retreat among the hills. How they
enjoyed the ride, as three children might! and were
quite wild with delight at meeting a corpulent jo^^, who
smiled amiably from his saddle and ofiered to show them
the interior of the pretty chapel at Faaa (only three a's
in that word), — ^the very one I grew melancholy in
when I was a man of business.

So they hurled themselves madly from the high seat^
one after the other, scorning to touch anything so con-
taminating as a man's hand, though it looked suicidal,
as the driver and I agreed while the three were at
prayers by the altar* Whipping up over the road town-

A PRODIGAL IN TAHITI 305

ward^ I could almost recognize my own footprints left
since the time I used to take the dust in my face three
mornings a week from the wheels of that very vehicle
as I footed it in to business. Passing the spring, my
toilet of other days, drawing to the edge of the town,
we stopped being jolly, and were as proper as befitted
travellers. We looked over the wall of the convent
garden as we drove up to the gate, and saw the mother-
superior hurrying down to us with a cumbersome chair
for the relief of the nims, but before she reached us
they had cast themselves to earth again in the face of
destiny, and there was kissing, crying, and commotion
as they withdrew under the gateway like so many doves
seeking shelter. When the gate closed after item, I
heard them all cooing at once, but the world knows
nothing further.

Where would I be dropped? asked the driver. In
the middle of the street, please you, and take half my
little whole for your ride, sir I He took it, dropped me
where we stood, and drove away, I pretending to be
very muck at my ease. God help me and all poor
hypocrites !

I sought a place of shelter, or rather retirement, for
the air is balm in that country. There was an old
house in tiie middle of a grassy lawn in a by-street ;
two of its rooms were furnished with a few papers and
books, and certain gentlemen who contribute to its
support lounge in when they have leisure for reading or
a chat. I grew to know the place familiarly. I stole
a night's lodging on its verandah in the shadow of a
passion-vine ; but, for fear of embarrassing some early
Ktudent in pursuit of kxipwledge^ I passed the second

20

306 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

ni^t on the floor of the dilapidated cook-house^ where
the ants covered me. I endured the tortures of one
who hares his bodj to an unceasing shower of sparks ;
but I survived.

There was^ in this very cook-house, a sink six feet in
length and as wide as a coffin; the third night I lay like
a galvanized corpse with his lid off till a rat sought to
devour me, when I took to the streets and walked till
morning. By this time the president of the club, whose
acquaintance I had the honour of, tendered me the free
use of any portion of the premises that might not be
otherwise engaged. With a gleam of hope I began my
explorations. Up a narrow and winding stair I found
a spacious lofL It was like a mammoth tent, a solitary
centre-pole its only ornament. Creeping into it on
all-fours, I found a fragment of matting, a dry crust,
and an empty soda bottle, — ^footprints on the sands of
time.

" Poor soul I ** I gasped, " where did you come from ?
What did you come for? Whither, whither, have
you flown ? "

I might have added. How did you manage to get
there ? But the present was so important a considera-
tion, I had no heart to look beyond it. The next ten
nights I passed in the silent and airy apartment of my
anonymous predecessor. Ten nights I crossed the
nnswept floor that threatened at every step to precipi-
tate me into the reading-room below. With a faint
heart and hollow stomach I threw myself upon my
elbow and strove to sleep. I lay till my heart stopped
beating, my joints were wooden, and my four limbs
corky beyond all hope of reanimation. There the

A PRODIGAL IN TAHITI. 307

mosquito revelled, and it was a promising place for
centipedes.

At either end of the building an open window ad-
mitted the tip of a banana-leaf ; up their green ribs the
sprightly mouse careered. I broke the backbones of
these banana-leaves, though they were the joy of my
soul and would have adorned the choicest conservatory
in the land. Day was equally unprofitable to me. My
best friends said, "Why not return to California?"
Every one I met invited me to leave the country at my
earliest convenience. The American consul secured me
a passage, to be settled for at home, and my career in
that latitude was evidently at an end. In my super-
fluous confidence in humaniiy, I had announced myself
as a correspondent for the press. It was quite necessary
that I should give some plausible reason for making my
appearance in Tahiti friendless and poor. Therefore, I
said plainly, " I am a correspondent, friendless and
poor," believing that any one would see truth in the
face of it, with half an eye. " Prove it," said one who
knew more of the world than I. Then flashed upon me
the alarming fact that I couldn't prove it, having
nothing whatever in my possession referring to it in the
slightest degree. It was a fatal mistake that might
easily have been avoided, but was too well estabhshed
to be rectified.

In my chagrin I looked to the good old Inshop for
consolation. Approaching the Mission House through
sunlit cloisters of palms, I was greeted most tenderly.
I would have gladly taken any amount of holy orders
for the privilege of ending my troublous days in the
iw^^t 9eclusioo pf the Mission House.

3o8 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

As it was, I received a blessing, an antograph, and a
'^ Ghxl speed " to some other part of creation. Added
to this I learned how the address to the Forty Chiefs of
Tahiti in behalf of the foreign traveUer, mj poor self,
had been despatched to me bj a special courier^ who
foond me not ; and doubtless the fUea I heard of and
was for ever missing marked the mardi of that mes-
senger, mj proxy, in his trimnphal progress. In my
innocent degradation it was still necessary to nonrish
the inner man.

There is a market in Papeete where, under one broad
roof, threescore hucksters of both sexes congregate long
before daylight, and while a few candles illumine their
wares, patiently await custom. A half-dozen coolies
with an eye to business serve hot coffee and chocolate
at a dime per cup to any who choose to ask for it. By
seven a.m. the market is so nearly sold out that only
the more plentiful fruiis of the country are to be ob-
tained at any price. A prodigal cannot long survive on
husks, unless he have coffee to wash them down. I took
my cup of it, with two spoonfuls of sugar and ants
dipped out of a cigar-box, and a crust of bread into the
bargain, sitting on a bench in the market-place, with a
cooUe and a Kanack on either hand.

It was not the coffee nor the sugared ants that I gave
my dime for, but rather the privilege of sitting in the
midst of men and women who were willing to accept
me as a friend and helpmate without questioning mj
ancestry, and any one of whom would go me halves in
the most disinterested manner. Then there was sure to
be some superb fellow close at hand, with a sensuous lip
curled under his nostril^ a glimpse of which gave me

A PRODIGAL IN TAHITI. 309

a dime*s worth of satisfaction and more too. Having
secreted a French roll, five cents, all hot, under my
coat, and gathered the hananas that would fall in the
yard so seasonably, I made mj day as brief and com-
fortable as possible by filling up with water from time
to time.

The man who has passed a grimy chop-house, wherein
a frowzy fellow sat at his cheap spread, without envying
the frowzy fellow bis cheap spread, caimot truly sympa-
thize with me.

The man who has not felt a great hollow in his
stomach which he found necessary to fill at the first
fountain he came to, or go over on his beam-ends for
lack of ballast, cannot fall upon my neck and call me
brother.

At daybreak I haunted those street fountains, waiting
my turn while French cooks filled almost fathomless
kegs, and coolies filled potbellied jars, and Kanacks
filled their hollow bamboos that seemed fully a quarter
of a mile in length. There I meekly made my toilet,
took my first course of breakfast, rinsed out my hand-
kerchiefs and stockings, and went my way. The whole
performance was embarrassing, because I was a novice,
and a dozen people watched me in curious silence. I
had also a boot with a suction in the toe ; there is
dust in Papeete ; while I walked that boot loaded
and discharged itself in a manner that amazed and
amused a small mob of little natives who followed
me in my free exhibition, advertising my shooting-boot
gratuitously.

I was altogether shabby in my outward appearance,
and cannot honestly upbraid any resident of the town for

3IO SUMMER CRUISING IN THE 90TUH SEAS.

his neglect of me. I know that I suffered the agonj of
shame and the pangs of hanger ; but thej were nothing
to the utter loneliness I felt as I wandered aboat with
my heart on mj sleeve^ and never a bite from so much
as a daw.

Did jou ever question the possibility of a man's
temporary transformation under certain mental, moral,
or physical conditions? There are seasons when
he certainly isn*t what he was, yet may be more
and better than he has been, if you give him time
enough.

I began to think I had either suffered this transform-
ation or been maliciously misinformed as to my person-
ality. Was I truly what I represented myself to be, or
had I been a living deception all my days ? No longer
able to identify myself as any one in particular, it oc-
curred to me that it would be well to address a few lines
to ihe gentleman I had been in the habit of calling
"father," asking for some particulars concerning his
absent son. I immediately drew up this document ready
for mailing : —

MosQuno Hail,

Cnrnpira AvxNxn, Pafsti.

DxAK Snt, — K nondefloript awaits identification al tliis office.
Answers to liio names at the foot of this p^, beUeves himself
to be your son, to have been your son, or about to be something
equally near and dear to you. He can repeat several chapters
of the New Testament at the shortest notice ; recites most of
the Catechism and Commandments ; thinks he would recognize
two sisters and three brothers at sight, and know his mother
with his eyes shut.

He likewise confesses to the usual strawberry-mark in fast
colours. If you will kindly send by return mail a few dollars, he ^

A PRODIGAL IN TAHITI. 31 1

will clothe, feed, and water himself, aUd return immediately to
those arms whidi, if his memory does not belie him, have more
than once sheltered his unworthy frame. I have, dear sir^ the
fortune to be the article above described.

The six months which would elapse before I could
hope for an answer would probably have found me past
all recognition, so I ceased crying to the compassionate
bowels of Tom, Dick, and Harry, waiting with haggard
patience the departure of the vessel that was to bear me
home with a palpable 0. 0. D. tacked on to me. Those
last hours were brightened by the delicate attentions of
a few good souls who learned, too late, the shocking state
of my case. Thanks to them, I slept well thereafter in
a real bed, and was sure of dinners that wouldn't rattle
in me like a withered kernel in an old nutshell.

I had but to walk to the beach, wave my lily hand,
heavily tanned about that time, when lo ! a boat was
immediately despatched from the plump little corvette
"Chevert," where the tricolour waved triumphantly
from sunrise to sunset, all the year round.

Such capital French dinners as I had there, such
oflFers of bed and board and boundless sympathy as were
made me by those dear fellows who wore the gold lace
and had a piratical-looking cabin all to themselves, were
enough to wring a heart that had been nearly wrung
out in its battle with life in Tahiti.

No longer I walked the streets as one smitten with
the plague, or revolved in envious circles about the
market-place, where I could have got my fill for a half-
dollar, but had neither the one nor the other. No
longer I went at daybreak to swell the procession at the
water-spout, or sat on the shore the picture of despair,

3ia SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS,

waiting simrifle, finding H my sole happiness to watch a
canoe-load of children drifting ont upon the baj, sing-
ing like a railful of larks ; nor walked solitarily trough
the night up and down the narrow streets wherein the
ffendarfne$ had learned to pass me unnoticed, with my
hat nnder my arm and my heart in my throat. Those
delidoos moons always seduced me from my natural
sleep, and I sauntered through the cocoa-groves whose
boughs glistened like row after row of crystals, whose
shadows were as mosaics wrought in blocks of silver.

I used to nod at the low, whitewashed ^^ calabooses "
fairly steaming in the sun, wherein Herman Melville
got some chapters of " Omoo."

Over and over again I tracked the ground of that
delicious story, saying to the bread-fruit trees that had
sheltered him, '^ Shelter me also, and whoever shaU
follow after, so long as your branches quiver in the
windl"

reader of "Omoo," think of " Motoo-Otoo,"
actually looking warlike in these sad days, with a row
of new cannons around its edge, and pyramids of balls
as big as cocoanuts covering its shady centre.

Walking alone in those splendid nights I used to hear

a dry, ominous coughing in the huts of the natives. I

^elt as though I were treading upon the brinks of half-

{ dug graves, and I longed to bring a respite to the

doomed race.

One windy afternoon we cut our stem hawser in a
fair wind and sailed out of the harbour ; I felt a sense
of relief, and moralized for five minutes without stop-
ping. Then I turned away from all listeners, and saw
those glorious green peaks growing dim in the distance;

A PRODIGAL IN TAHITI 3<3

the douds embraced them in their profound secrecy;
like a lovely mirage Tahiti floated upon the bosom of
the sea. Between sea and sky was swallowed up vale,
garden^ and waterfall ; point after point crowded with
palms; peak above peak in that eternal crown of beauty;
and with them the nation of warriors and lovers falling
like the leaf, but^ unlike it, with no followers in the new
season*

THX END

Printed by Ballantynb, Hanson &* Co
L<»idon ^ BdtQburgh

AN AFTERGLOW.

HERE is a bell in a tower in the middle of
our Square. At six every morning that
bell does its best to tip over in delirioiis
jojf but a dozen strokes with the big tongue
of it is about all that is ever accomplished.

I like to be wakened by that bell ; I like to hear it at
meridian when my day's work is nearly done. It is
swinging at this very minute, and the iron hammer is
bumping its head on either side^ wrought with melodious
fury.

The voice of it is so like the voice of a certain bell I
used to hear in a dreamy seaside village off in the
tropics^ that I have only to dose my eyes and I am over
tiie seas again where I belong.

As it rings now, I fancy I am in a great stone house
with broad verandahs, that stands in the centre of a
grove of palms ; across a dusty lane lies the churchyard,
and in tiie midst of the congregation of the departed I
catch a glimpse of the homely whitewash^ walls of
the old missionary church.

As the bell rings out at high noon, the pigeons flutter
from the eaves of this old church, and saU about, half
afraid, yet seeming to be a part of the service that is
renewed from day to day.

AN AFTERGLOW. %i%

In spirit I pace again those winding paths ; I meet
dark faces, that brighten as I greet them ; I hear the
reef-music blown in from the summer sea; through
leafy trellises I look into the watery distance, across
which white sails are wafbed like feathers in an azure
sky.

A dry and floating dust, like powdered gold, glorifies
the air. The vertical sun has driven the shadows to the
wall, and the dry pods of the tamarind rattle and crackle
in the intense heat, or perhaps a cocoanut drops sud-
denly to the grass with a dull thud.

A vixenish hornet swaggers in at the window, dan-
gling its legs, the very ghost of an emaciated ballet-girl,
and pirouettes about my head while I sit statue-like, but
presently flirts out of the window and is gone.

Do you think nothing transpires in this comer of the
world ? The Coolie who brings me my morning cocoa-
nut, the milk of which I drink from the shell, is just
now picking up leaves as big as a panama hat out in the
croquet-ground. Is that a common sight ?

Were I in Honolulu — the metropolis, you know— .
from my window I could see as of yore a singularly-
shaped hill called Punch-bowl, that looms above the
mass of foliage engulfing the pretty village. This
Punch-bowl has been empty for ages, so have all the
craters in that particular island.

It has baked hard in the sun and is as red as clay,
though a tinge of green in all its chinks suggests those
antique bronzes of uncertain origin. Above it roll the
snow-white trade-wind clouds, those commercial travel-
lers that rush over us as though they had special business
elsewhere. Beyond all is the eternally blue sky of the

316 SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

tropicfl| whioh generally seems so awfullj high and
hollow, that it makes a fellow lonesome to look at it.

I like better to picture the narrow street in the
neighbonrhoody wherein man and beast travel amicably,
and a disconsolate old kanaka, done up in a shirt or a
sheet, settles wherever it pleases him, to take about
three whi£b of tobacco from a stubby, black, brass-bound
pipe before continuing his journey.

Over the way there is a small shed, with one of its
beams hung ftdl of dead-ripe bananas ; on a little
counter, right under these yellow pouches of creamy
pulp, lie heaps of native water-melons, looking very
delicious. A pretty native girl, with an uncombed head,
but pretty for all that, will sell you her poorest stores
with a grace that is worth twice tiie money.

Just beyond my window wave mango boughs heavily
fruited. There are strange flowers palpitating in the
sunshine, covered with dust-pollen; flowers whose ances-
tors have lived and died in Ceylon, Java, Japan, Mada-
gascar, and all of those far-away lands, that make a
boy*s mouth water in study hours as he pores over his
enchanted atlas.

Sindbad had some rough experiences while he was
travelling correspondent of the Daily Arabian Nighti;
but I warrant you there are plenty of us nowadays
who would risk life and reputation for a tithe of his
wonderful adventure.

I hear the tramp of hoofs upon the hard-baked street;
horsemen and horsewomen dash by, the men sitting limp
in their saddles like our native Cdifomians, and seeming
almost a part of the animal, but the women erect and
bold, astride their horses man-fashion, with an ample

AN AFTERGLOW. 317

spread of the knees, that at first strikes the foreigner as
being novel and a little vulgar, — ^but of course it isn't,
for having once become accustomed to it, it seems the
only natural and graceful way of sitting a horse.

What the down is to the peach so is the last hour of
sunshine to the tropical day ; it is the finishing touch
that makes perfect the whole. The bell has just struck
again, and its reverberating note seems of a colour with
the picture in my mind — a bell for sunset, the angelus
that calls me back to the little village that lies half asleep
over the water. Just fancy a long beach, with the sea
rushing upon it, and turning a regular summersault, all
spray and spangles, just before it gets there ; a unique
lighthouse at the top of the one solitary wharf, where
the small boats land ; the white spires of two churches
at the two ends of the town, and a sprinkling of roofs
and verandahs but half-discovered in the confiision of
green boughs, — ^that is Lahaina from the anchorage, to
me the prettiest sight in the Hawaiian kingdom.

Let us hasten shoreward. Perhaps we wonder if that
ridge of breakers is to be climbed ; perhaps we look
with a tinge of superstition into the afiairs of Lahaina,
wondering if it be really the abode of men in the flesh,
or but a dream wherein spirits move and have their
being.

But we are speedily awakened by the boat-boy. Great
is the boat-boy of Lahaina I He is amphibious and agile
and impudent, and altogether comical. He has carried
all the population of Lahaina, some two or three thou-
sand, in his boat, first and last. He complacently suns
himself on that solitary wharf, awaiting a fresh arrival
and a renewal of business. He poses himself against

3i8 * SUMMER CRUISING IN THE SOUTH SEAS.

the whitewash of the wooden ligfathoiue in tremendous
relief; he recognizes you in spite of yonr week-old
beard and the dilapidated state of your irayelling suit ;
he hails you with the utmost cordiality ; it is impossible
not to brave the sea with him, whether you will or no,
for he is the embodiment of presuming good-nature,
and you are as wax under the influence of his beaming
and persuasive smile. The finger of Time doubles up
the moment it points toward him ; he is the same yester-
day, to-day, and in the middle of next week. I can
lead you to the very boat-boy who collared me ten years
ago, for he is still lying in wait for me ; and were I there
in ihe flesh as I am there in the spirit, I should expect
to fall into his hands within the hour, and would instinc-
tively surrender whatever jdans I may have cherished
without a struggle and witlK)ut a murmur.

At six o'clock this evening the bell will ring again,
and again I shall be transported; il^n will shadows,
very long cool shadows, stretch through the little tropical
village ; at dusk the reef is stiller, and its roar sounds
faint and far off, and is sometimes lost altogether. The
pigeons are once more driven from their home in the
belfry, but they soon return to it, and waltzing about
on their slender pink legs for a moment, they disappear
within the shelter of the tower.

Every one has his easy-chair, smoking, chatting, or
dreaming ; there is a sudden flush along ihe evening
sky ; the marsh hens begin to pipe in the rushes ; the
moths hover about, with big, staring, camehan eyes,
and dash frantically at the old-fashioned solar-lamp that
stands on the centre table in the open parlour.

The night falls suddenly ; the air grows cool and moist ;

4N AFTERGLOW. 319

a great golden star sails throngh the sky, leaving a
wake of fire. Island Home I made sacred with a
birth and with a death ! haunted with sweet and solemn
memories I What if thy rocking palm boughs are as
muffled music and thy reef a dirge? The joy bells
that have rung in the happy past shall ring again in
the hopefnl future^ and life grows rosy in the radiance
of the Afterglow,

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